MEMOIR 



OF 



Valentine Mott, m. d., ll. d., 



PROFESSOR OF SURGERY IN THE 



UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK: 



MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE. 



BY 



S. D. GROSS, M. D., LL. D 




NEW YORK: 

D. APPLETON AND CO. 

PHILADELPHIA: LINDSAY AND BLAKISTON. 
1868. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

COLLINS, PRINTER. 



%>* 



PREFACE 



Five summers ago, while passing a few weeks 
at one of our celebrated watering places, I had 
the pleasure of meeting with an old and esteemed 
friend, a former colleague of Dr. Mott and myself 
in the same school, although not at the same 
time. In talking over men and things, our con- 
versation naturally turned upon the Coryphaeus of 
American surgery, and, after mutually paying him 
some well-deserved compliments, I said, " If I 
outlive Dr. Mott, as, considering the disparity of 
our ages, I possibly may, I shall esteem it to be 
my duty, not less than my pleasure, to prepare a 
discourse upon his life and character for the 
benefit and instruction of my pupils." He cor- 
dially agreed with me, not only that we owed 
him a great debt of gratitude for the exalted 
services he had rendered to the profession, but 



iv PREFACE. 

that the example of such a man, if properly por- 
trayed, could not fail to exercise a most salutary 
influence upon our medical youths, in awaking 
in them habits of industry and a laudable am- 
bition to emulate his many virtues. The great 
surgeon, in the providence of God, has passed 
away, with a world-wide reputation and an im- 
perishable name, and I now fulfil my self-imposed 
vow. 

My acquaintance with Dr. Mott commenced 
in the winter of 1828, in the amphitheatre of 
Rutgers Medical College, during a brief visit at 
New York. Having learned that he would meet 
his class at a certain hour in the morning, and 
anxious to see and hear a man who, although he 
had hardly reached the meridian of life, already 
occupied the highest round in the ladder of fame, 
I made my way to his private room, where I had 
the good fortune to be presented to him by his 
illustrious colleague, Dr. Hosack. His discourse, 
listened to with profound attention and respect by 
his young auditors, was upon fractures of the 
skull, a subject to the study of which, as he 



PREFACE. V 

informed me, he had devoted much time and 
reflection. The exercises ended, a brief conversa- 
tion ensued, when a cordial shake of the hand 
closed the interview. Four years after, during 
the height of the Asiatic cholera, when that ruth- 
less malady was daily sweeping away upwards of 
three hundred citizens of New York, I had the 
pleasure of meeting Dr. Mott again, now as a 
guest at his house; for a friend had given me a 
letter of introduction which secured to me all 
that courtly consideration for which he was so 
distinguished. In 1850, I was appointed his suc- 
cessor in the chair of surgery in the University of 
the City of New York, and was again received 
by him with the same kindness and hospitality 
which he had extended to me eighteen years be- 
fore. Our last interview occurred in 1863, when 
we met as members of an Examining Board ap- 
pointed by Dr. Hammond, Surgeon-General of 
the United States Army, to deliberate upon mat- 
ters of grave interest to our wounded soldiers. 

It will thus be perceived that my acquaintance 
with Dr. Mott, although never intimate, extended 



vi PREFACE. 

through a period of many years; and, it is hardly 
necessary to add, that, as one of his countrymen, 
allied to him by similarity of taste and pursuit, I 
watched with pride and satisfaction his lofty and 
brilliant career as one of the great surgeons of the 
age. 

The composition of this biographical sketch 
was to me a source of unalloyed pleasure. It 
was like the contemplation of a beautiful land- 
scape, mellowed by the gorgeous rays of the set- 
ting sun ; or like a walk, in a bright summer's 
morning, along the banks of a quiet and modest 
stream, enlivened by the songs of birds, and stud- 
ded with magnificent trees and flowers, filling the 
air with their delicious perfume. 

It is proper to add that an abstract of this Me- 
moir was read before the Faculties and Students 
of the two medical schools of this city last De- 
cember, and soon after, by special invitation, be- 
fore the Bellevue Hospital Medical College of 
New York. 

Jefferson Medical College, 
Philadelphia, March ist, 1868. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter I. — First Twenty-four Years. 

Preliminary education — Studies medicine — His private preceptor 
— Attends lectures — Graduation — Visits Europe — His Lon- 
don teachers — The University of Edinburgh i 

Chapter II. — Settlement in New York. 

Settles in New York — Rapid success in practice — Delivers a pri- 
vate course of lectures — Is appointed Professor of Surgery — 
Rutgers College — Account of his colleagues ... 5 

Chapter III. — Foreign Travels. 

Visits Europe — Interview with Sir Astley Cooper — Sojourn at 
Paris — French Surgeons — Graefe and DiefFenbach — Athens — 
Epidaurus — Constantinople ...... 24 

Chapter IV. — Surgical Operations. 

Ligation of the innominate artery — Excision of the lower jaw — ■ 
Amputation at the hip-joint— Excision of the clavicle — Hydro- 
rachitis — Ligation of the common iliac — Immobility of the 
lower jaw — Nasal polyp — Lithotomy — Qualities as an operator 3 7 



viii CONTENTS. 

Chapter V. — Literary, Educational, and other Labors. 

Writes little — New York Medical and Surgical Register — Book 
of Travels — Velpeau's Surgery — Introductory and other dis- 
courses — College teaching — Private pupils — Prize medals — 
Connection with hospitals 57 

Chapter VI. — Last Illness. 

Last illness — Funeral — Personal appearance — Marriage — Memo- 
rial Library — Family 69 

Chapter VII. — Character and Habits. 

Earnest professional devotion — Reputation as a great surgeon—. 
Elected a Member of the Institute of France — Patriotism and 
politics — Professional fees — System and punctuality — Domes- 
tic habits — Religious views — Portraits and busts — Conclusion j-j 






MEMOIR 



OF 



VALENTINE MOTT, M.D., LL.D. 



CHAPTER I. 

' FIRST TWENTY-FOUR YEARS. 

Preliminary education — Studies medicine — His private preceptor — At- 
tends lectures — Graduation — Visits Europe — His London teachers — 
The University of Edinburgh. 

When a great and good man dies, it is fitting 
that his fellow-citizens, especially the members of 
his own profession, should pause to contemplate 
his virtues, and unite in paying a just tribute of 
affection and esteem to his memory. It is fitting 
that the age which owned him, and which he 
adorned and illustrated, should make a recognition 
of his services in order that those who may come 
after him may emulate his character, and thus 
increase the measure of their own usefulness. 
Biography is a mental portrait, or, as Good Old 
Fuller terms it, a perspective glass, reflecting alike 
the vices and the virtues of men ; it is more — it is 
philosophy, the philosophy of individuality, teach- 
ing by example. "The record of the life of a 
good man is," to use the language of Milton, "the 
precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed 
and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life." 
Of all the studies that can engage attention, bio- 
graphy is at once the most fascinating and the 
i 



2 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

most useful in moulding and directing human 
conduct. When a person has attained to extraordi- 
nary eminence, we feel almost an instinctive desire 
to scan his intellect and to inquire into the means 
which he employed to accomplish his end; whe- 
ther his distinction was due to fortuitous circum- 
stances, or solely to the force of his genius and 
talents. 

The man whose life I desire to delineate was 
no ordinary personage. He early sowed the seeds 
of his greatness. His reputation was built up by 
able hands. His career, brilliant beyond that of 
most men in the medical profession, extended 
through a period of nearly four-fifths of a century. 
To epitomize his biography is therefore no easy 
task, and yet this is all that the space allotted to 
me will permit. 

Hardly two years and a half have elapsed since 
the messenger of God, standing at the grave of 
Valentine Mott, uttered the solemn words, "Earth 
to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes," and the 
crowds of friends, acquaintances, and professional 
brethren that followed his remains to their last 
resting place retraced their steps with sorrowing 
hearts to their homes in the great metropolis. 
Every one felt that New York had lost one of 
its most venerated citizens, medical science a most 
zealous votary, and American surgery its acknow- 
ledged head. The grief which followed his de- 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 3 

mise was not confined to his own country; his 
fame had gone abroad, and physicians everywhere 
knew and appreciated his merits. 

It is confessedly difficult, under any circum- 
stances, to write the biography of a contemporary. 
On the one hand, there is great danger of indulg- 
ing in fulsome eulogy ; and, on the other, of being 
blinded by jealousy and prejudice. In either event, 
injustice is apt to be done alike to the subject and 
to the truth of history. Whether the present 
instance affords an exception to the rule others 
must determine. I think I comprehend the cha- 
racter of Dr. Mott sufficiently to avoid both ex- 
tremes. His career was so quiet and serene, his 
conduct in all his relations, private and public, so 
pure and virtuous, that it will be easy to seize the 
prominent features of his mind, and to place them 
in bold relief before the world. It has been truly 
said by Thomas Carlyle that a well-written life is 
almost as rare as a well-spent one. That of Mott 
should be written as much with the heart as with 
the pen. My only qualification for the task con- 
sists in a lively sympathy for the great surgeon, in 
a tolerably intimate acquaintance with the history 
of his career, and in the pleasure arising from a 
similarity of pursuits. 

Valentine Mott, whose name will be perpetuated 
as long as surgical science shall be honored among 
men, was born at Glen Cove, Long Island, on the 



4 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

20th of August, 1785, and consequently within a 
few years after the close of the great struggle 
which eventuated in the establishment of our in- 
dependence as a free and sovereign people. The 
father, Henry Mott, was a pupil of the elder Bard, 
and, after having practised medicine at different 
places, but more particularly at New York, died 
at an advanced age in that city, in 1840. The 
mother was an only daughter of Samuel Way, of 
North Hempstead. The son, no doubt, owed 
much of his success in life to her careful and 
pious training. 

The great ancestor of Valentine was Adam Mott, 
an Englishman, who settled on Long Island soon 
after the middle of the seventeenth century. He 
was one of the original disciples of George Fox, 
the founder of the Society of Friends, an institu- 
tion distinguished alike, at least in its more primi- 
tive state, for the purity of its morals, its love of 
freedom, and its Christian beneficence. It is not 
surprising that such a religion should have deeply 
impressed itself upon the minds and hearts of the 
descendants of Adam Mott. They were all Qua- 
kers; and Valentine retained his respect and admi- 
ration for the sect to the close of his long and 
valuable life. 

Of the early life of Valentine Mott — his tastes, 
habits, and pursuits — no information has reached 
me. That it was sweet and gentle, in strict ac- 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 5 

cordance with the tenets and practices of the faith 
in which he was educated, and in full consonance 
with his own sweet and gentle nature, no one can 
doubt. The boy was father to the man, in the 
most rigid sense of the term; docile, obedient, 
pure in mind, cautious in speech, neat in dress, 
erect in person,- walking as one who reverences 
God, and who respects the rights and feelings of 
his fellows; in a word, a perfect gentleman. Those 
who knew Dr. Mott later in life, in the full ma- 
turity of his intellect and fame, and remember his 
courtly bearing, could picture the boy in no other 
light. 

He received his classical education in a private 
seminary at Newtown, where his father, for a 
time, practised his profession. What attainments 
he made here I have no means of knowing. That 
they were highly respectable may be inferred from 
the fact that he was always a diligent and consci- 
entious student, and that he retained his fondness 
for the Greek and Latin languages up to the time 
of his death. Even the name of the master of 
the seminary appears to have been lost, as I can 
nowhere find any mention of it. If he had been 
a man of any note, it would no doubt have been 
recorded by Thompson, in his History of Long 
Island, a work remarkable for its research and 
fidelity. 

In 1804, young Mott, then about nineteen years 



THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 



of age, enrolled himself as a private pupil in the 
office of his kinsman, Dr. Valentine Seaman, of 
New York, under whose instruction he remained 
until the spring of 1807, when, after having at- 
tended two full courses of lectures in Columbia 
College, he was invested with the honors of the 
doctorate by that institution, then the only school 
of medicine in that city. The thesis which he 
presented on the occasion was an Experimental 
Inquiry into the Chemical and Medicinal Proper- 
ties of the Statice Limonium of Linnaeus, illustrated 
by a beautiful steel engraving of that plant, and 
spread over fifty-eight pages of a closely-printed 
duodecimo brochure. The plant, vulgarly known 
as the marsh rosemary, is indigenous to this coun- 
try, and possesses valuable astringent properties, 
which render it, it is said, a useful substitute for 
nutgall and tannin in the treatment of internal 
hemorrhage, diarrhoea, and hemorrhoids. The 
dissertation exhibits much labor and patient re- 
search, added to accuracy of observation. 

The private preceptor of Dr. Mott was no or- 
dinary man. The son of an eminent New York 
merchant, he was a pupil at the University of 
Pennsylvania, in the palmy days of Shippen, Kuhn, 
and Rush, published a number of valuable papers 
on medical and other topics, delivered lectures on 
midwifery, medicine, and surgery, was one of the 
surgeons of the New York Hospital, took an act- 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 7 

ive part in the introduction of vaccination into the 
United States, and died, universally regretted, in 
1 8 17, in the forty-eighth year of his age. In a 
glowing eulogy pronounced upon his character by 
one who knew hirh well and intimately, the late 
Dr. John W. Francis, he is described as an astute 
physician, a laborious practitioner, and a man of 
rare benevolence and humanity; attributes which 
entitle him to a high rank among his contempo- 
raries. It was in the office of Dr. Seaman that 
young Mott first became fully inspired with that 
love for his profession which formed ever after 
such a remarkable feature in his character. It 
was his first votive altar, upon which he daily 
kindled the -fire of his ambition. 

His conduct, as a young student, was, in the 
highest degree, correct and exemplary. He lost 
no time in listlessness, or idle dalliance; he was 
always at his place in the lecture-room; devoted 
much of his time and attention to the cultivation 
of anatomy and surgery ; was unusually popular 
with his classmates; and was graduated with high 
honor. 

Very shortly after he received his degree, young 
Mott repaired to London, to extend and perfect 
his medical education. He had no sooner arrived 
in the British metropolis than he placed himself 
under the tuition of Mr., afterward Sir Astley 
Cooper, then rapidly approaching the zenith of 



8 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

his fame as one of the most illustrious surgeons 
that have ever lived. Abandoning himself at once 
to the most active exertion, he devoted most of 
his time to the study of practical anatomy, the 
operations upon the cadaver, visits to the hospitals, 
and the prelections of the great masters of the 
healing art. Among the latter, by whose instruc- 
tions he more especially profited, may be men- 
tioned the names of Cline, Abernethy, Haighton, 
and Charles Bell, whose labors have shed so much 
lustre upon English surgery, and who, with Sir 
Astley Cooper as the common centre, form a gal- 
axy of illustrious savans such as the world has sel- 
dom witnessed in such close juxtaposition. 

From London Mott went to Edinburgh to 
avail himself of the advantages of the instruction 
of Gregory, Monro, Duncan, Home, Hope, and 
Thomson. The medical school of the Scotch 
metropolis enjoyed then, as it does now, a very 
high reputation. The mantle of Cullen, rendered 
immortal by his teachings and his writings, had 
fallen worthily upon the shoulders of James Gre- 
gory, a man of superior classical attainments, cele- 
brated not less for the purity and elegance of his 
Latinity than his eloquence as a lecturer, and his 
rare skill as a practitioner. For upwards of a third 
of a century he was the most fashionable physician 
in Edinburgh, whose word was law both in and 
out of the profession. Alexander Monro, the 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 9 

third of that name — a name renowned in science 
— was professor of anatomy, and, although greatly 
inferior, both as a teacher and an author, to his 
father and grandfather, labored hard to uphold 
the character of the University. Black, one of 
the most illustrious philosophers of the age, the 
Nestor of chemical revolution, as he has been 
styled by Fourcroy, had recently retired from the 
chair of Chemistry, and had been succeeded by 
Home, who, in turn, had made way for Hope. 
Duncan, a physician of extensive learning, an able 
lecturer, and a facile writer, was professor of the 
Institutes of Medicine. John Thomson occupied 
the chair of Military Surgery, for a long time the 
only one of the kind in any British school of 
medicine. He is principally recollected at the 
present day by his great work on inflammation, a 
work of vast labor and erudition, long the only 
text-book on the subject in Europe and in this 
country. 

Such were the principal teachers in the Univer- 
sity, while outside of it, perched as it were upon 
a lofty eminence, a fit resting-place for an eagle, 
there was one in reality far greater, in point of 
talent and genius, than any of these, a man whose 
wonderful power of fascination gave him a hold 
upon students such as hardly any individual, either 
before or since his time, ever wielded. To rare 
eloquence and polemic ability, he added a tho- 



IO THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

rough knowledge of anatomy, great descriptive 
powers, a keen sense of sarcasm, and unrivalled 
skill and daring as an operator; qualities which 
rendered him one of the most attractive and popu- 
lar of teachers, and one of the most charming of 
companions. This person was John Bell, the 
author of an undying work on surgery, and the 
brother of Charles, whose researches into the 
functions of the nervous system place his name by 
the side of that of William Harvey, the discoverer 
of the circulation of the blood.* 

Of Dugald Stewart, whose prelections on intel- 
lectual philosophy he regularly attended, young 
Mott could never speak with sufficient enthusiasm ; 
he regarded him, in common with Edinburgh 
students in general, as a man of gigantic mind, 
and as one of the most captivating and instructive 
of teachers, with manners as simple as elegant, 
and a voice almost as sweet as music itself. Of 
his extraordinary powers of fascination an idea 
may be formed by the following description, from 



* It is not known with any degree of certainty when Mr. Bell ceased 
to teach surgery. Dr. John Struthers, in his charming little "Historical 
Sketch of the Edinburgh Anatomical School," lately published, states 
that it must have been about the close of the last century. If so, Dr. 
Mott could not have attended his lectures. However this may be, the 
very touch of the garments of such a man must have warmed his enthu- 
siasm, and inspired him with increased love for his favorite studies. 
John Bell was the father of Scotch surgery, and the mantle, since so 
gracefully worn by Liston, Miller, Syme, and Fergusson, was unques- 
tionably fashioned by his genius. 






VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. I I 

the pen of one who knew him intimately, and 
often listened to his discourses. "To me," says 
Lord Cockburn, in his posthumous memoirs, "his 
lectures were like the opening of the heavens. I 
felt that I had a soul. His noble views, unfolded 
in glorious sentences, elevated me into a higher 
world. I was as much excited and charmed as any 
man of cultivated taste could be, who, after being 
ignorant of their existence, was admitted to all 
the glories of Milton, and Cicero, and Shakspeare. 
This changed my whole nature. In short, Dugald 
Stewart was one of the greatest of didactic orators. 
Had he lived in ancient times, his memory would 
have descended to us as that of one of the finest 
of the old eloquent sages. But his lot was better 
cast. Flourishing in an age which requires all 
the dignity of morals to counteract the tendencies 
of physical pursuits and political convulsions, he 
has exalted the character of his country and his 
generation. No intelligent pupil of his ever ceased 
to respect philosophy, or was ever false to his prin- 
ciples, without feeling the crime aggravated by 
the recollection of the morality that Dugald Stew- 
art had taught him." 

I am unable to state how long Dr. Mott so- 
journed at Edinburgh ; he probably remained there 
somewhat over a year. During his residence, 
both there and at London, he formed many ac- 
quaintances both in and out of the profession, to 



I 2 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

which he ever after looked back with pleasure 
and satisfaction. The letters which he had taken 
with him to the two capitals secured him the 
entree to the best society, and thus enabled him to 
form a more correct estimate of English and 
Scotch character. Of the two cities he could not 
fail to award the palm to Edinburgh. Its Uni- 
versity enjoyed a world-wide reputation; its Bar 
was noted for its great talents and attainments; 
and there was a literary coterie, composed of Scott, 
Jeffrey, Sidney Smith, and others, a galaxy of in- 
tellect, learning, wit, and humor, which cast its 
burning rays not only over Europe, but Asia and 
America. The very atmosphere of such a place 
must have exercised an important influence in 
shaping the tastes and character of the young 
American student. 

Having refreshed himself at these great foun- 
tains of medical science, he returned, in the au- 
tumn of 1809, after an absence of upwards of two 
years and a half, to New York, to enter upon the 
active duties of his profession, for which he was 
now so well qualified. Paris, since so celebrated 
as a seat of medical learning, he did not visit until 
many years after, when his fame, as a great ope- 
rator, had preceded him to the French capital. 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 13 



CHAPTER II. 

SETTLEMENT IN NEW YORK. 

Early professional career in New York — Rapid success in practice — 
Delivers a private course of lectures — Is appointed Professor of Sur- 
gery — Rutger's College — Account of his colleagues. 

Dr. Mott's success in New York was rapid and 
brilliant. His handsome person, his elegant man- 
ners, and his great accomplishments attracted uni- 
versal attention, and he soon became the centre of 
an admiring circle, with the sobriquet of "the 
handsome young Quaker Doctor. " In the fol- 
lowing winter he delivered a private course of lec- 
tures on surgery, and shortly after was elevated to 
the professorship of surgery in his alma mater, an 
office which he held until Columbia College was 
merged in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
when he was appointed to the same chair with 
Wright Post, Hosack, Mitchill, Macneven, and 
Francis, all men of distinguished talent, as his col- 
leagues. He continued in this institution, lec- 
turing with marked ability to rapidly increasing 
classes, until 1826, when, in consequence of some 
tyrannical acts of the Trustees, the Faculty with- 
drew in a body. 

A new school was immediately formed by the 



14 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

retiring professors, under the auspices of Rutger's 
College, at New Brunswick, New Jersey. The 
organization was completed by the introduction 
of Dr. John D. Godman into the anatomical 
chair, and Dr. John Griscom into the chemical. 
To conceive of a more able corps of teachers than 
this would be difficult. There certainly was not, 
at that time, any superior to it, whether we regard 
the talents of its members, their scientific and lite- 
rary attainments, or their ability and eloquence as 
lecturers. The school, after a prosperous career 
of five years, during a part of which it was con- 
nected with the Geneva College of Western New 
York, was compelled to close its doors on account 
of some technical illegality respecting its power 
of conferring degrees. 

Of the' men who were associated with Dr. Mott 
in founding the new college a few passing remi- 
niscences will not be without interest. They 
were all physicians of note, and they have all 
gone to "that undiscovered country from whose 
bourne no traveller returns." 

Dr. David Hosack, the eldest member of the 
Faculty, adorned the chair of medicine, and never 
was a professor's gown worn with greater grace or 
dignity. He was descended from a Scotch family, 
and received his literary education at Princeton 
College during the Presidency of the renowned 
Dr. Witherspoon, one of the signers of the De- 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 15 

claration of Independence. Endowed by nature 
with a noble presence and brilliant talents, he was 
an elegant lecturer, an able writer, and a finished 
scholar. His reputation, at the period here referred 
to, was of the highest order, and he was almost 
universally regarded, for upwards of a quarter of a 
century before his death, as the fittest person in 
New York to be consulted in all medical cases of 
difficulty or danger. He had a remarkably clear, 
almost intuitive, perception of the nature and seat 
of disease, great adroitness in diagnosis, extraordi- 
nary fertility and readiness in the application of 
remedies, and a rare faculty of inspiring his pa- 
tients with confidence in his skill. As a lecturer, 
he possessed eloquence, and a manner at once 
dignified and impressive, with great command of 
language, and a ready power of utterance, which 
rendered him eminently attractive to students. 
He had, early in life, enjoyed the advantages of 
foreign study and travel, and was elected a mem- 
ber of the Royal Society of London soon after his 
entrance into the profession, in consideration of 
an able paper which he had published a short 
time previously on vision. His writings, which 
were chiefly medical, elicited an unusual share of 
criticism both at home and abroad; and although 
replete with interest, they abound too much in 
hypothesis and speculation to be enduring. The 
work upon which his fame, as an author, will 



1 6 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

mainly rest, is his Life of De Witt Clinton, which 
was composed with marked ability, and forms a 
valuable addition to the literature of the country. 
Dr. Hosack died of apoplexy in 1835, in the sixty- 
seventh year of his age, soon after the great fire 
in New York, in which he sustained heavy pecu- 
niary losses, which, it has been said, hastened his 
demise. 

Dr. John W. Francis, a name ever to be spoken 
with reverence and affection, was of German de- 
scent, and born at New York, in 1789, four years 
later than Dr. Mott, who, nevertheless, survived 
him. Their active lives ran parallel with each 
other. For fifty years they walked the same 
streets, entered the same dwellings, and often felt 
the same pulse. Their friendship, sincere, cor- 
dial, and uninterrupted, was marked by a thousand 
acts of courtesy and kindness. The beautiful eu- 
logy which Mott pronounced upon his character 
before the New York Academy of Medicine, 
shortly after his decease, in May, 1 861, is a tribute 
of the deepest tenderness and devotion, as rare as 
it is touching. He had watched the career of 
Francis from an early period of his life, had often 
listened to the story of his manly struggles for an 
education, had seen him rise to eminence and 
usefulness as a practitioner and a teacher of an 
important branch of medical science, and for many 
years had stood with him side by side as it were 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 17 

as a colleague in the lecture-room. He felt, as he 
gave utterance to his melancholy strains, that he 
had lost a well-tried and faithful friend ; and the 
sadness which he experienced on the occasion was 
probably not a little heightened by the conviction 
that, in the course of natural events, he must soon 
follow him. "In peaceful sorrow/' says the ven- 
erable surgeon, "there is a kind of joy. The hu- 
man heart bereaved finds gratification in mourning 
over its loss. Its anguish is assuaged by indulging 
in gentle melancholy. 'Strike the harp in my 
hall/ exclaims the mighty Fingal to the bard — 
'strike the harp in my hall, and let Fingal hear 
the song. Pleasant is the joy of grief. It is like 
the shower of spring when it softens the branch 
of the oak, and the young leaf lifts its head. ' " 

The character of Francis may be summed up 
in a few words. With a capacious brain and a 
lofty forehead, the dome of the soul, he had a 
high order of intellect; his mind was stored with 
the riches of knowledge ; he was a profound 
thinker, an eloquent lecturer, a good writer, a 
sagacious, ready practitioner, a charming com- 
panion, sparkling with wit and humor, a kind- 
hearted man, generous to a fault, one who valued 
learning and despised everything that was sordid 
and contemptible. 

William J. Macneven, who occupied the chair 
of materia medica, was a native of Ireland, but, 
2 



1 8 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

in 1805, with a number of his countrymen, sought 
an asylum in the United States after the unsuc- 
cessful attempt of Robert Emmet and his asso- 
ciates to shake off the British yoke which had so 
long and so heavily oppressed them. He was a 
graceful lecturer, an accomplished classical scho- 
lar, an ardent patriot, and an upright, estimable 
man. He was the author of a number of scien- 
tific papers and political tracts, was one of the edi- 
tors of the "New York Medical and Philosophical 
Journal," was a great lover of books, and spoke, it 
is asserted, German and French with as much 
fluency as English. He expired at New York on 
the 1 2th of July, 1841, in the eightieth year of 
his age, universally regretted by all who knew 
him. 

Dr. John D. Godman, a native of Maryland, 
and early in life a printer by occupation, was 
Mott's associate in the new college enterprise only 
for two sessions. Long before the termination of 
the second course of lectures it was evident that the 
labor was too severe for the endurance of his bodily 
powers, and he was accordingly obliged to resign 
his chair, and to seek relaxation and health in a 
more genial climate. He spent several months in 
the West Indies, but without any material benefit, 
and finally, on his return, settled at Germantown, 
Pennsylvania, where, under the hospitable roof of 
a kind friend, he eked out the remnant of his days. 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 19 

Godman was emphatically a child of genius, 
with an astonishing aptitude for the acquisition of 
knowledge, acute penetration, and great readiness 
as a writer and speaker. Commencing his studies 
under unusual difficulties, he, nevertheless, made 
the most extraordinary progress, and early achieved 
a most commanding reputation, especially as a 
lecturer, naturalist, and author. He was by far 
the most brilliant and popular teacher of anatomy 
in his day in this country. As a neat and rapid 
dissector he probably never had an equal any- 
where. Notwithstanding, however, his skill in 
the use of the scalpel, he signally failed as an 
operator, for the same reason, perhaps, as the illus- 
trious Albert von Haller, who taught surgery for 
sixteen years, but never performed an operation 
upon the living subject for fear, as he often avowed, 
of giving pain. Both lacked courage and decision, 
qualities which, unless innate, can only be acquired 
by constant familiarity with the sight of blood and 
the screams of the patient. 

As a linguist, also, Godman possessed great 
powers; for he had not only an excellent acquaint- 
ance with Greek and Latin, but an intimate know- 
ledge of the French, German, Dutch, and Italian. 
He had, indeed, a most happy faculty of sur- 
mounting obstacles; for, to genius of a high order 
he added patience, and to patience industry, and 
to industry perseverance; to all, and above all, a 



20 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

great love for his species, and an unbounded vene- 
ration for Deity, whom he saw and worshipped in 
all His works. Death snatched him away at the 
early age of thirty-seven, the victim of poverty 
and pulmonary consumption, under which he had 
nobly struggled for many years, working literally 
for his daily subsistence up to the last hour of his 
precious life. Although he died so young, the 
fame of his genius had spread over this entire con- 
tinent, at a time when fame travelled much more 
slowly than she does now; and the announcement 
of his demise caused universal grief among our 
profession as well as among the naturalists of 
America and Europe. 

The chair vacated by the lamented Godman 
was filled, in 1828, by Dr. George Bushe, an Irish 
gentleman, at the time of his appointment a sur- 
geon in the British army. He remained attached 
to the College until its close in 1832. Tall and 
erect in person, with a light complexion and a 
commanding presence, he was one of the best 
lecturers I have ever heard, learned, fluent, and 
enthusiastic ; a bold, dashing operator, and the 
author of a treatise on the Diseases, Injuries, and 
Malformations of the Rectum, long without a 
rival in the English language. His death was 
occasioned by phthisis, in 1837, before he had 
reached the full meridian of his life. 

John Griscom, the Professor of Chemistry, the 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 21 

descendant of a respectable Quaker family, was a 
native of New Jersey, where he was born in 1774. 
Although his early education had been much 
neglected, yet, by indomitable industry and perse- 
verance, he surmounted every obstacle to improve- 
ment, and eventually achieved a high scientific and 
literary reputation. For nearly a third of a cen- 
tury he swayed the chemical sceptre of New York. 
To ease of elocution, he added grace and sim- 
plicity of manner, deliberate utterance, exact dic- 
tion, and a thorough acquaintance with his subject, 
which made him one of the most charming and 
attractive of teachers. His public lectures were 
attended by many of the most fashionable and 
distinguished citizens ; and it has been asserted 
that he did more to inspire and diffuse a taste for 
the popular study of chemistry than any other 
man in the country. He was a devoted friend of 
general education, carried on an extensive corre- 
spondence with scientific and benevolent men both 
at home and abroad, published numerous papers 
in the medical and philosophical journals of his 
time, and left a valuable and instructive work on 
foreign travel, in two volumes. Dr. Griscom died 
in 1852, at the ripe age of 78 years. 

After the downfall of Rutger's Medical College 
Dr. Mott resumed his connection with the Col- 
lege of Physicians and Surgeons as Professor of 
Operative Surgery with Surgical and Pathological 



22 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

Anatomy, the Principles and Practice of Surgery 
being taught by Dr. Alexander H. Stevens. He 
remained in the school until 1835, when he re- 
signed in consequence of ill health and his pro- 
jected visit to Europe. 

Upon the establishment of the Medical Depart- 
ment of the University of the City of New York, 
in 1840, he was unanimously elected Professor of 
Surgery and President of the Medical Faculty. 
This honor was conferred upon him while abroad, 
and was the more flattering to his feelings because 
it was unsolicited. All his colleagues were gen- 
tlemen who, like himself, either already enjoyed 
great celebrity as teachers, or soon became distin- 
guished as such. The names of Granville Sharp 
Pattison, John Revere, Martyn Paine, John W. 
Draper, and Gunning S. Bedford, are all inscribed 
upon the scroll of fame. Under the auspices of 
this Faculty the school rapidly rose into notice, 
with classes ranging annually from 350 to 400 
pupils, representing all the different States of the 
Union as well as many foreign countries. The 
school was a complete success. Dr. Mott retained 
his connection with it until 1850, when he re- 
signed, and went to Europe. On his return in 
the following autumn he entered the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons as Professor of Operative 
Surgery and Surgical Anatomy, a position which 
was subsequently abandoned for the office of Erne- 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 23 

ritus-Professor of Surgery in the University, which 
he held up to the time of his death in 1865. Of 
the causes which led to these various changes, and 
which must have occasioned him no little vexation 
and annoyance, it is not necessary here to speak. 
It is sufficient to observe that they were such as 
he could not control, and which reflect no discre- 
dit upon him, in any manner, either as a gentleman 
or as a professor. Those who are acquainted with 
the history of medical institutions in this country 
know how fluctuating is their character, and what 
trivial causes often effect their prosperity and even 
their downfall in a single day. Founded, for the 
most part, by private enterprise, they, unfortunately, 
too often contain, at their very inception, the seed 
of their own decay and ultimate destruction. In 
a republican country, like ours, where the masses 
and not the Government are the rulers, all institu- 
tions, literary, medical, and scientific, are, in gen- 
eral, short-lived. 



24 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 



CHAPTER III. 

FOREIGN TRAVELS. 

Visits Europe — Interview with Sir Astley Cooper — Sojourn at Paris — 
French Surgeons — Graefe and Dieffenbach — Athens — Epidaurus — 
Constantinople. 

In 1835, ill-health, as already intimated, com- 
pelled Dr. Mott, exhausted by unremitting labor, 
to relinquish for a time his practice, and to seek 
repose and relaxation in a foreign country. He 
had now been engaged in the active duties of his 
profession for nearly thirty years, during which he 
had earned a world-wide reputation as one of the 
first surgeons of the age. Previously to his de- 
parture, his medical friends, with Hosack, Francis, 
Macneven, Delafield, and other distinguished con- 
freres at their head, tendered him a public dinner, 
as a token of their profound appreciation of his 
character, and of their high sense of the services 
he had rendered to surgical science. 

Upwards of a quarter of a century had elapsed 
since, as a pupil of medicine, he had bid adieu to 
England, and now his first impulse, upon touching 
its shores, was to hasten to London, to greet his 
old friend and preceptor, Sir Astley Cooper, the 
Nestor of British surgery. A meeting between 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 25 

two such men is an unusual occurrence. The 
pupil had long ago more than realized the most 
sanguine expectations of his illustrious master. 
Each had the proud satisfaction of knowing that 
he was the accredited head of the surgeons of the 
age in his own country. Cooper, although nearly 
seventy years old, still retained his early vigor and 
enthusiasm; he loved his profession with all the 
ardor of a devotee, and he daily, even at that pe- 
riod of life, when most men require repose, per- 
formed an amount of labor that would have put 
to shame many of his younger brethren, less zeal- 
ous and ambitious than himself. His whole career 
was one series of brilliant successes. The son of 
a poor but respectable country clergyman in Nor- 
folk, England, he studied medicine in London, 
and by his industry, talent, and correct deport- 
ment, rapidly attained to eminence. He was ap- 
pointed at an early age Surgeon to Guy's and St. 
Thomas' Hospitals, enjoyed for many years the 
most lucrative and aristocratic practice in London, 
and was successively Surgeon to three sovereigns, 
George IV., William IV., and Queen Victoria. 
His income from his business alone is said to have 
netted in one single year £23,000. He left an 
enormous estate, the result of his unaided exertion. 
He was the first to ligate the aorta and the com- 
mon carotid artery for the cure of aneurism; and 
he has bequeathed to posterity numerous mono- 



26 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

graphs on surgery, works of vast personal research, 
of careful clinical observation, and of inestimable 
practical value. 

Having spent some weeks in the British metro- 
polis, in the midst of much that was interesting 
and agreeable, as well as instructive, Dr. Mott suc- 
cessively visited Scotland, Ireland, France, Bel- 
gium, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany, and, after 
an absence of sixteen months, returned to the 
United States, with his health, as he had supposed, 
permanently reinstated. In this, however, he was 
disappointed, and he, therefore, after a brief so- 
journ, again embarked for Europe, determined to 
extend his travels into Greece, Egypt, Turkey, 
and Asia Minor. Establishing his head-quarters 
at Paris, he made annual excursions into different 
countries, and finally bid adieu to Europe in 1841, 
completely reinvigorated in mind and body. In 
every place he visited he met with a reception 
worthy of his exalted reputation. This courtesy 
was by no means confined to the members of his 
own profession. Men of the highest renown in 
every walk of life, and even crowned heads, vied 
with each other to do him homage. 

At Paris, where he was most cordially received 
by the whole medical fraternity, he was treated 
with special courtesy and kindness by Louis Phi- 
lippe and his family. Here he frequently saw 
Baron Larrey, the father of modern military sur- 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 27 

gery, the hero of a hundred battles, the friend and 
companion of Napoleon during all his memorable 
campaigns until the sun of that great and wonder- 
ful man set forever on the field of Waterloo. 
The frosts of nearly eighty winters had dimmed 
his eye, but in no degree diminished his venera- 
tion and enthusiasm for his sovereign, who always 
spoke of him as the most honest and virtuous man 
he had ever known. "If the army," said Napo- 
leon, "ever erect a monument of gratitude, it 
should be to Larrey." In his will he left him 
100,000 francs. No surgeon, since the days of 
Good Old Ambrose Pare, had so completely en- 
joyed the love and confidence of an army as Lar- 
rey. He was emphatically the soldier's idol ; and 
the Emperor himself, popular as he was, hardly 
exercised as unbounded an influence in the camp 
as this great surgeon in the hospital. At the pe- 
riod of Dr. Mott's visit, Larrey was Surgeon-in- 
Chief to that noble institution, the Hospital for 
Invalids, the receptacle of at least 4000 men dis- 
abled in war. After stating that he had repeatedly 
accompanied him through the wards of this great 
asylum, an honor alike to France and to humanity, 
he remarks: "It was delightful to behold the 
almost religious veneration with which his old 
companions in arms received and welcomed him 
as he passed from bed to bed. The eyes of these 
decrepit men would glisten with joy at his ap- 



28 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

proach ; and, if sad from suffering, he would cheer 
their drooping spirits by recounting to them some 
memorable victory in which they had both parti- 
cipated. I have heard him sound in their ears 
the magic words, Lodi, Marengo, and Austerlitz, 
and Mount Tabor! and the effect was electric and 
wonderful. It was like the neighing of the war- 
horse at the sound of the trumpet. ,, 

Larrey has left behind him precious works, the 
record of his numerous observations and opera- 
tions in the field and in the hospital; works of 
transcendent excellence, written with the pen of a 
master, combining solidity of information with 
the charm and interest of a romance. Of the 
unexampled opportunities which he enjoyed for 
the practical exercise of military surgery a faint 
idea may be formed when it is stated that, after 
the battle of Austerlitz, he performed more than 
two hundred operations, never relaxing his efforts 
to relieve the wounded until his knife fell power- 
less from his hand. At Wagram he removed 
fourteen arms at the shoulder-joint. It reflects 
no little credit upon the good taste and intelligence 
of the American profession that all the works of 
this great surgeon have been translated into the 
English language by American physicians, the late 
Professor Wilmot Hall, of Baltimore, having led 
the way in this commendable enterprise. 

Baron Larrey died in July, 1 842. Pariset, soon 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 29 

after his death, pronounced a glowing eulogy upon 
his life and character before the Royal Academy 
of Medicine, and two statues have since been 
raised to him, one of them in the court of the 
Val de Grace Hospital, the scene of the labors of 
his declining years. The life of Larrey is full of 
romance, and affords a sublime subject for the 
study of the philosopher, the poet, the painter, 
and the historian. 

During his sojourn in the French capital, Dr. 
Mott spent much of his time in the great hospi- 
tals there, witnessing the more striking cases of 
diseases and accidents, and carefully investigating 
everything that presented the slightest novelty, 
especially in operative surgery, his own favorite 
pursuit. He was particularly interested in the 
study of orthopcedic surgery, then recently founded 
by Stromeyer, and afterwards so much improved 
by Guerin, Scoutetten, and other French tenoto- 
mists. As a consequence of this study he intended, 
shortly after his return from Europe, to open an 
institution for the treatment of this class of de- 
formities at Bloomingdale ; but was finally induced, 
through the persuasion of his friends, to abandon 
the project, principally on the ground that it would 
not be popular with the profession! 

At the Neckar Hospital, as well as in the social 
circle, he often met with Mons. Civiale, the ori- 
ginator of lithotripsy, one of the greatest triumphs 



30 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

of science and humanity ever achieved by man. 
Without a rival in his particular department, it is 
impossible, says Mott, for any one to imagine 
the highly finished style of his manipulations. In 
delicacy of tact and adroitness of execution he 
never had an equal. Added to all this, he was one 
of the most amiable and gentle of men, abounding 
in all the charities that adorn our nature. 

From Velpeau, with whom he had long been 
in correspondence, and who, only a few months 
ago, died at an advanced age, full of honor and 
fame, he received more than ordinary attention 
and courtesy. "No man," he says, "could have 
treated a brother more kindly and cordially than 
he did me." After speaking of him as a dexterous 
operator, an admirable teacher, and a profound 
anatomist, he bestows upon him the high compli- 
ment of having been by far the most scientific 
and best read surgeon he had ever met with. Of 
such a man France has just reason to be proud. 
From the most humble beginning, he had risen, 
by the force of industry and genius, to the most 
exalted rank in his profession. His elaborate work 
on operative surgery affords an exhibition of learn- 
ing, and a familiarity with the history of medical 
literature without a parallel in any language, either 
in ancient or modern times. His treatises on 
Midwifery, on Topographical Anatomy, and on 
the Diseases of the Mammary Gland, the first two 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 31 

published soon after he entered upon his brilliant 
career, are all highly meritorious productions, des- 
tined to associate their author's name with the 
most distinguished writers of the age, and to con- 
fer upon it lasting fame. 

Nothing impressed Dr. Mott, in his visits to 
the French hospitals, more forcibly or unpleasantly 
than the bad results of the operations in the hands 
of the different surgeons, even the most dexterous 
and best educated. From what he saw he was 
convinced that they were mainly due to the mise- 
rable system of ventilation in the wards of these 
establishments, and to a want of proper attention 
to the after-treatment, especially to an insufficiency 
of nutritious food and stimulants at a time when 
the system was exhausted by irritation and suppu- 
ration. As able diagnosticians and brilliant ope- 
rators, he considered the surgeons of Paris as 
unequalled, but as practitioners, with a few hon- 
orable exceptions, the very worst he had ever seen; 
an opinion amply confirmed by the judgment and 
experience of more recent observers. 

At Berlin, Dr. Mott had anticipated great plea- 
sure from meeting with the celebrated surgeon, 
Charles Ferdinand von Graefe, who was the first 
to repeat the ligation of the innominate artery, 
three years after he himself had performed the 
operation. His disappointment may be better 



32 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

imagined than described when he learned that he 
was absent from the city on account of ill health. 
The career of Von Graefe, as a surgeon, was, in 
every respect, most brilliant. He enjoyed in Prus- 
sia the same high consideration as Mott in the 
United States, Dupuytren in France, and Sir Astley 
Cooper in Great Britain. Born at Warsaw in 
1787, two years after our own great countryman, 
he studied medicine at Halle and Leipzig, took 
his degree in 1807, entered the military service in 
181 1, and was appointed Surgeon-in-Chief of the 
Prussian army in 1822. He finally settled at Ber- 
lin as Professor of Surgery and Director of the 
Ophthalmic Clinic in the famous University of 
that city. He invented several valuable instru- 
ments, perfected rhinoplasty, and published a num- 
ber of excellent monographs on his favorite branch 
of science, besides editing, conjointly with the 
illustrious Von Walther, from 18 19 to 1828, a 
journal of Surgery and Ophthalmology, a period- 
ical of extraordinary celebrity. His labors in 
rhinoplasty created a new era in reconstructive 
surgery in his own country, where the operation 
is universally known as the German method. Stu- 
dents flocked to him from all parts of the world 
to attend his lectures, and his fame was so great 
that when, late in life, he visited England, he was 
received with distinguished courtesy by the British 
sovereign. He died in July, 1840, leaving, as the 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 33 

result of his personal exertion and prudence, an 
estate valued at $3,000,000. 

From Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach, the towns- 
man of Von Graefe, not less renowned for his skill 
in rhinoplasty than as the author of the brilliant 
operation for the cure of strabismus, Dr. Mott 
received the most devoted consideration. He was 
particularly struck, during one of his visits to the 
great Charity Hospital, with the number and va- 
riety of his new noses, and lost in surprise at his 
marvellous dexterity as an operator. Dieffenbach 
was, in truth, a wonderful personage, a most daring, 
dashing surgeon, a fascinating lecturer, a good 
writer, a fast man, a roue, and a spendthrift! He 
had a boundless European fame. His name was 
as familiar in Paris as in Berlin. Few men ever 
did so great an amount of delicate surgery as he. 
He was nose-maker for several kingdoms, and no 
one in his day probably ever operated so well or 
so frequently for the cure of cleft-palate. He 
had published one large volume of a great work 
on operative surgery, and partly composed the 
second, when death overtook him in the midst of 
a clinical discourse, surrounded by a crowd of ad- 
miring pupils. He had a presentiment that he 
should not live to complete his task. "Ich erlebe 
es doch nicht dass es fertig wird." He had often 
expressed a wish that he might die suddenly. His 
saying was: "nur nicht sterben — das ist ein qual- 

3 



34 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

voller Kampf; aber Tod ist schon!" Death gra- 
tified his wishes. The first volume of the work 
appeared in 1845; tne second three years later. 

In Greece, the land of philosophy, poetry, lite- 
rature, oratory, painting, sculpture, architecture, 
military glory, and commercial renown, Dr. Mott 
experienced the delight naturally incident to a 
journey through that classic and romantic country. 
Taking Athens as the starting-point, he penetrated 
deeply into the interior, and explored every object 
of interest and importance with an eye keenly 
alive to the beautiful and sublime in nature and in 
art. Nothing, indeed, seems to have escaped his 
observation. Mountain and valley, river, lake, and 
cavern, the tombs of heroes, physicians, and phi- 
losophers, monuments of art, soil, climate, agri- 
culture, men, and animals, alike attracted his atten- 
tion, and engaged the graphic powers of his pen. 
He witnessed with sorrow the wretched condition 
of the Greeks, especially the adult portion of the 
population, who seemed to be sunk too low in all 
the vices of Oriental indolence ever to be regene- 
rated. "In this opinion," he remarks, "I have 
not been precipitate or hasty. It has not been 
drawn from a survey of the perfumed Athenian 
or Attican ; but I have had an opportunity of see- 
ing the Theban in his mountain and his capital, 
the Lebadean in his capital and on his beautiful 
plain, the Delphian about his rugged cliffs, and 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 35 

the inhabitant of the mighty snow-topped Par- 
nassus. I have viewed the whole line, from the 
long stretch of Mount Helicon to near the highest 
summit of Parnassus, from Aero-Corinth to the 
plains of Argos in the Morea, and but one strong 
feature reigns through the whole." A gloom of 
midnight darkness everywhere shrouded this once 
fairy land of the hero and the poet. 

At Athens, where he was warmly welcomed by 
King Otho and his family, he found a medical 
school, under the charge of German professors, 
who lectured to their pupils, hardly a dozen in 
number, in the modern Greek language. An op- 
portunity was here afforded him of studying the 
endemic diseases of the country, then little under- 
stood, and he took special pains to investigate the 
nature of lepra, which he concluded was only an 
obstinate form of syphilis. His visit to the Morea 
was made expressly to see the ancient city of Epi- 
daurus, the birthplace of ^Esculapius, the father of 
medicine. It was the ultima thule of his aspira- 
tions, the Mecca of his pilgrimage to Greece. It 
was here, in a spot hallowed by a thousand pro- 
fessional associations, that he performed his famous 
feat, rendered so by his American detractors, of 
sacrificing a cock to the memory of the ruling 
deity, having previously tied both carotid arteries 
of the honored bird, and delivered, in the presence 
of his companions, a brief clinical discourse, the 



36 



THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 



first, probably, ever given in that part of the 
world. 

For this performance Dr. Mott was severely- 
ridiculed, after the publication of his travels, espe- 
cially by the medical press of his own country. 
It was, however, only what any intelligent physi- 
cian, an enthusiastic devotee of his profession, 
would have done under similar circumstances. 
The cock was the favorite bird of the god of 
Medicine, and it was just as natural for a great 
surgeon, standing at his tomb, to offer such a sacri- 
fice to his memory, as for Socrates, influenced by 
his strong religious persuasions, to request Crito, 
before he passed into a state of insensibility from 
the hemlock administered to him by the execu- 
tioner, to pay a similar tribute. "Crito, we owe 
a cock to iEsculapius: discharge the debt, and by 
no means omit it." 

In Constantinople, where his fame had preceded 
him, he was received with great distinction by the 
reigning Sultan, Abdul Medjid, from whose head 
he removed a tumor in the presence of the court 
physician. For this service he was invested by 
that sovereign with the order of Knight of Med- 
jidichi of Constantinople. 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 37 



CHAPTER IV. 

SURGICAL OPERATIONS. 

Ligation of the innominate artery — Excision of the lower jaw — Ampu- 
tation at the hip-joint — Excision of the clavicle — Hydrorachitis — 
Ligation of the common iliac — Immobility of the lower jaw — Nasal 
polyp — Lithotomy — Qualities as an operator. 

We must now go back some years, and inquire 
into Dr. Mott's exploits as an operator, those 
achievements upon which his claims to lasting 
fame will mainly rest. Of the many thousand 
operations which he performed only a very few 
need be specified to show that the great reputation 
founded upon them was justly deserved. The 
name of Churchill is not more indissolubly asso- 
ciated with the battle of Blenheim, or that of 
Wellington with the battle of Waterloo, than is 
the name of Valentine Mott with the history of 
surgery in the first half of the nineteenth century. 
What they, and others like them, accomplished 
with the sword aided by hordes of soldiers, he 
accomplished, silently and alone, with the knife. 
His victories and his triumphs were not less real 
than theirs. 

It has been seen that Dr. Mott, after his return 
from Europe, in 1809, was not long in securing 



38 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

business. Notwithstanding the distinguished phy- 
sicians who occupied the field, he soon became a 
practitioner of mark ; for Fortune seems to have 
showered upon him more than an ordinary share 
of her favors. His principal competitors in sur- 
gery, among the older members of the profession, 
were Dr. Richard Kissam and Dr. Wright Post, 
men of acknowledged ability, and of distinguished 
reputation. The former was for thirty years one 
of the surgeons of the New York Hospital, and 
was particularly celebrated as a lithotomist. Of 
sixty-five operations which he performed for the 
relief of vesical calculus, only three proved fatal ; 
a degree of success rarely equalled anywhere. Dr. 
Post was Professor of Surgery in Columbia Col- 
lege, and it was under his teaching that young 
Mott became first thoroughly enamored with that 
branch of the profession which he subsequently 
so much adorned. His merit as a surgeon was 
very great, and, until his pupil came upon the 
stage, his only rivals in America were Physick 
and Warren. His name is honorably associated 
with a number of brilliant operations, the more 
remarkable because they were performed at a time 
when such exploits were comparatively uncom- 
mon. To him belongs the credit of having been 
the first to tie successfully the subclavian artery 
above the clavicle, on the outer side of the scalene 
muscles, for the cure of axillary aneurism. Kis- 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 39 

sam died in 1822, and Post six years after, thus 
leaving Mott in the undisputed possession of the 
field, if we except Dr. Alexander H. Stevens, 
who, after a career of great usefulness and honor, 
retired upwards of a quarter of a century ago 
from active practice, to his suburban residence at 
Astoria, where, surrounded by admiring friends 
and all the elegancies and refinements that can 
adorn human life, he is spending the evening of 
his days in undisturbed tranquillity and happiness. 
The greatest of his earlier operations — that 
which gave him a world-wide reputation, and 
placed him in the very foremost rank of the illus- 
trious surgeons of his day — was performed by Dr. 
Mott in May, 181 8, in the thirty-fourth year of 
his age, and in the thirteenth year of his profes- 
sional life. It was a feat which had never been 
accomplished before, and was nothing less than 
the ligation of the innominate artery, a small 
stunted vessel, hardly an inch and a third in 
length, arising from the aorta, within, practically 
speaking, fearful proximity to the heart. A care- 
ful study of Mr. Allan Burns' celebrated work on 
the Surgical Anatomy of the Head and Neck had 
long ago convinced him of the feasibility of the 
operation, and he had been in the habit, for seve- 
ral years, of exhibiting it upon the dead subject in 
his surgical lectures. With a steady hand, and a 
correct knowledge of the anatomy of the parts, 



40 



THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 



he knew it could be performed upon the living 
subject, and he only waited for a suitable oppor- 
tunity to carry it into effect. This at length pre- 
sented itself, in the person of Michael Bateman — 
his name deserves to be recorded — a sailor, a na- 
tive of Massachusetts, fifty-seven years of age, the 
subject of an aneurism of the right subclavian 
artery. His first idea was to tie this vessel, if it 
should be sufficiently sound, on the inside of the 
scalene muscles; if not, to secure the innominate 
artery. The operation was performed on the i ith 
of May ; and, after a careful dissection, it was as- 
certained that there was such an amount of disease 
as to render it necessary either to abandon the 
poor patient to his fate or to throw a ligature 
round the innominate artery. He did not hesi- 
tate. Doubtful whether so large a quantity of 
blood could suddenly be intercepted so near the 
heart without very serious effects upon the brain, 
he drew the cord very gradually, with his eyes 
intently fixed upon the patient's countenance, de- 
termined to withdraw it instantly if any alarming 
symptoms should arise. His feelings had been 
wrought to the highest pitch, and we may there- 
fore easily imagine the relief he experienced when 
he perceived, to use his own language, "No change 
of feature or agitation of body." The arteries at 
the wrist at once ceased to beat, and the tumor 
was reduced to one-third of its original volume. 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 41 

A minute diary of the case was kept. Everything 
proceeded favorably, with every prospect of final 
recovery, until the twenty-third day, when he- 
morrhage to the amount of twenty-four ounces 
occurred, followed by excessive prostration. The 
bleeding recurred at intervals until the twenty- 
sixth day, when the man expired from sheer ex- 
haustion. The ligature had separated at the end 
of the second week. The dissection showed the 
cause of death to have been ulceration of the 
wound, going on insidiously at the bottom, while 
the upper part was rapidly healing, and ruinously 
involving, to an extent nearly of one inch, the 
innominate, subclavian, and carotid arteries, which 
opened into the cavity of the aneurism, and were 
only partially occluded by coagula. 

Although the operation proved fatal, the case 
fully established the practicability, and also the 
propriety, of its execution. Regretting this un- 
toward circumstance, "I am happy," he says, "in 
the reflection, as it is the only time it has ever 
been performed, that it is the bearer of a message 
to surgery, containing new and important results." 
To appreciate the difficulty and danger of this 
operation it is necessary to remember that the 
ligature was placed within one inch of the aorta, 
the great trunk of the arterial system, that the 
pleura and lung were in close proximity, and, 



42 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

lastly, that it held out to the poor patient the only- 
chance of relief. 

The operation thus initiated has been performed 
altogether about ten times, and in every instance, 
save one, death was caused by hemorrhage from 
the wound, either from the want of occlusion of 
the ligated artery, or of the carotid and subclavian. 
In the case of Von Graefe, who was the first to 
repeat the operation, the patient, for a long time 
supposed to be out of danger, perished on the 
sixty-seventh day. 

The last time in which this vessel was secured 
was in 1864. The case was one of traumatic an- 
eurism of the subclavian artery, and the intrepid 
operator, Dr. A. W. Smyth, of New Orleans, in- 
fluenced by the sad experience of the past, tied at 
the same time the common carotid. Notwith- 
standing this precaution, repeated hemorrhages 
occurred, and the patient would have perished if 
the vertebral artery, the source of the bleeding, 
had not also been at length ligated. This opera- 
tion was performed fifty-four days after the first, 
and eventuated in complete recovery. Thus, after 
the lapse of nearly half a century, it has at length 
been demonstrated that ligation of the innomi- 
nate artery alone for aneurism of the subclavian 
or carotid is incapable of effecting a cure. In 
order to succeed it is necessary at the same time 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 43 

to secure one of these vessels and likewise the 
vertebral, as in the case of Dr. Smyth, otherwise 
death from secondary hemorrhage will be inevi- 
table. It reflects no discredit upon Dr. Mott's 
judgment that he did not, in his operation, foresee 
this necessity. The attempt to tie an artery so 
near the heart was in itself an extremely bold 
undertaking. Great truths are generally unravel- 
led slowly, step by step, as it were. The mind 
does not all at once grasp the leading points of a 
grand subject. At first all is dark and mysterious; 
it is only by degrees that light appears, doubt 
vanishes, and truth presents herself in all her love- 
liness. It is sufficient honor for Mott to have 
been the pioneer in such a noble enterprise. He 
was in ecstasy over the success of Dr. Smyth's 
case. In a copy of that gentleman's report of the 
operation, kindly sent me by Mott, the great sur- 
geon said: "I know you will be delighted with 
this crowning jewel. 

In 1 821, Dr. Mott excised the right side of the 
lower jaw of a young woman, the subject of osteo- 
sarcoma, having previously, as a means of prevent- 
ing hemorrhage, secured the primitive carotid 
artery. The operation, an account of which was 
published in the first volume of the "New York 
Medical and Physical Journal," was entirely suc- 
cessful, notwithstanding its formidable character. 
Afterwards, in three instances, he removed the 



44 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

bone, with equally happy results, at the temporo- 
maxillary articulation. 

When his first case occurred, Dr. Mott was not 
aware that a similar, though much less extensive, 
operation had been performed, in 1810, by Dr. 
W. H. Deadrick, of Tennessee. The reason of 
this was that no history of the operation was pub- 
lished until 1823, two years after the occurrence 
of the New York case, which at the time attracted 
much attention on account of its supposed novelty. 
Baron Dupuytren, in 181 2, removed a large por- 
tion of the inferior maxilla for carcinoma. Al- 
though it is thus certain that Mott had been 
anticipated in these operations, both in the United 
States and in France, yet there can be no question 
that their success tended very greatly to lessen the 
fears of these undertakings, and to pave the way 
more effectually for their general adoption. The 
brilliant achievements of McClellan, of Philadel- 
phia, and of Cusack, of Dublin, were directly 
traceable to the efforts of the New York surgeon 
to extend relief to a class of sufferers supposed for 
a long time to be beyond the pale of hope. The 
recent advances in this particular branch of chi- 
rurgery have proved that ligation of the common 
carotid artery, as a preliminary measure to prevent 
hemorrhage, even when the morbid growth is of 
extraordinary bulk, may safely be omitted. 

Amputation at the hip-joint, by which nearly 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 45 

one-fourth of the entire body is removed, was 
performed by Dr. Mott in 1824. The patient, a 
lad ten years of age, had been much exhausted 
by the effects of a badly-treated fracture of the 
thigh. Two-thirds of the stump healed by the 
first intention, and within six weeks the entire 
wound was closed. It was long believed by Dr. 
Mott and the profession generally that this had 
been the first operation of the kind ever performed 
in America; but many years after it was ascer- 
tained that he had been anticipated by Dr. Walter 
Brashear, of Bardstown, Kentucky, as early as 
1806. No account of the case, however, had ever 
been published, and when Mott discovered his 
error he was among the very first to award to the 
western surgeon the credit so justly due him. His 
motto always was "Palmam qui meruit ferat." 
This credit is so much the greater because, when 
the operation was performed, Dr. Brashear had no 
precedent to guide him, as no information of the 
cases of Larrey, Guthrie, and other military sur- 
geons of Europe had reached this country. 

Excision of the clavicle, performed by Mott, in 
1828, for osteo-sarcoma of that bone, is, in all 
respects, one of the most remarkable exploits in 
the history of surgery, if, indeed, it has any paral- 
lel. "It surpassed/' he says, "in tediousness, dif- 
ficulty, and danger, anything which I had ever 
witnessed or undertaken. " The tumor, four inches 



46 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

in diameter at its base, incompressible, of rapid 
growth, and of the volume of a man's doubled 
fist, had contracted the most powerful and exten- 
sive adhesions, and involved on all sides the most 
important structures. To guard against the en- 
trance of air into the external jugular vein, an 
occurrence often followed by instant death, that 
vessel was secured, as a preliminary step, with two 
ligatures. The tumor being excessively vascular, 
the blood gushed forth so freely at every stroke of 
the scalpel as to render it necessary to tie not less 
than forty arteries, an occurrence probably without 
a parallel in the history of surgery. A faint idea 
of the magnitude and difficulty of the undertaking 
may be formed when it is stated that nearly four 
hours were consumed in its execution — a portion 
of the time in efforts to revive the patient from 
the effects of shock and loss of blood — and when 
it is recollected that the operator was one whose 
knowledge of surgical anatomy and manual dex- 
terity have never been surpassed. Dr. Mott, with 
a pardonable vanity, called it his Waterloo opera- 
tion, as it was performed on the 17th of June, the 
day before the anniversary of that famous battle 
which forever decided the destiny of Napoleon 
upon the throne of France. 

An attempt has been made to deprive Dr. Mott 
of the honor of priority of this operation by as- 
cribing it to Dr. Charles McCreary, of Hartford, 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 47 

Kentucky, who, in 18 13, removed the right cla- 
vicle, in a youth fourteen years of age, on account 
of a scrofulous affection. In a Report on Ken- 
tucky Surgery, drawn up by me in 1852, for the 
Kentucky State Medical Society, of which I was 
one of the founders, and for one year President, I 
myself gave currency to that idea ; but I am now, 
after a more careful study of the two cases, per- 
fectly satisfied that they had nothing whatever in 
common with each other, and that Dr. Mott is 
fully entitled to all the merit that can attach to 
such a procedure. The case of Dr. McCreary was 
one simply of caries, or of caries and necrosis, and 
required no particular dexterity for the removal 
of the bone, as it was but little, if any, enlarged, 
and not encroached upon in any manner whatever 
by the surrounding structures. On the contrary, 
it was comparatively isolated, and therefore easily 
detached. The operation, in fact, was such as any 
one, even the veriest tyro in surgery, could have 
performed. In Dr. Mott's case matters were alto- 
gether different. The difficulty and danger were 
immense, and there was a tumor of large size with 
the most intimate and powerful adhesions that 
can be conceived of, in close proximity not only 
with large arteries, veins, and nerves, but even the 
pleura and lung, and which only a surgeon of the 
most consummate coolness and dexterity could 
sever. I doubt very much whether the annals of 



48 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

surgery, ancient or modern, present a parallel 
case, one requiring such an amount of anatomical 
knowledge, judgment, skill, and patience. I con- 
sider it as by far the very greatest of all Dr. Mott's 
operations, not excepting those upon the innomi- 
nate and primitive iliac arteries. 

The patient, a youth of nineteen years, not only 
rapidly recovered from the immediate effects of the 
operation, but in less than twelve months regained 
the perfect use of the corresponding extremity. 
The small acromial end of the bone, left behind 
in the operation, had formed permanent adhesions 
with the surrounding parts, and thus maintained 
the shoulder in its normal position. 

A perfect cure of hydrorachitis, a congenital 
affection, usually called spina bifida, or cleft-spine, 
is, under any circumstances, even the most favor- 
able, an extremely uncommon occurrence. Dr. 
Mott had the proud satisfaction of saving two 
children by operative interference. The first case 
came under his observation in 1830. The tumor, 
situated in the lower portion of the back, and in 
volume nearly equal to a goose's egg, was included 
in an elliptical incision, and the wound, which 
united by the first intention, closed with inter- 
rupted sutures and adhesive plaster. The patient, 
nine years of age, rapidly recovered, and subse- 
quently enjoyed vigorous health. In the other 
case, involving the cervico-dorsal region, a similar 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 49 

operation was performed on the ninth day after 
birth, with results not less gratifying. 

In the ligation of arteries he was "facile prin- 
ceps;" absolutely without a rival. No surgeon, liv- 
ing or dead, ever tied so many vessels, or so success- 
fully, for the cure of aneurism, the relief of injury, 
or the arrest of morbid growths. The catalogue, 
inclusive of the celebrated case of the innominate 
artery, already described, comprises eight examples 
of the subclavian artery, fifty-one of the primitive 
carotid, two of the external carotid, one of the 
common iliac, six of the external iliac, two of the 
internal iliac, fifty-seven of the femoral, and ten of 
the popliteal ; in all one hundred and thirty-eight. 

His great operation for tying the common iliac 
artery for the cure of aneurism came off in 1827, 
and was completely successful. In only one in- 
stance before had this vessel been secured in the 
living subject. The case alluded to occurred in 
1 81 2, in the practice of Dr. William Gibson, then 
Professor of Surgery in the University of Mary- 
land, and afterwards in the University of Penn- 
sylvania, the patient having been wounded in the 
abdomen by a musket-ball during the riots in 
Baltimore. He survived the operation thirteen 
days, the immediate cause of death being perito- 
nitis and secondary hemorrhage. The case is one 
of profound interest, inasmuch as it served to es- 
tablish, in the most irrefragable manner, a great 

4 



50 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

principle in the operative surgery of the arteries, 
that the largest vessel of this kind may be oblite- 
rated, and yet the circulation in the extremities 
go on with perfect freedom. Mott's case was one 
of aneurism, of immense size, of the external iliac 
artery, and the operation was attended with great 
difficulty on account of the extensive disease of 
the vessel. The ligature was placed within half 
an inch of the aorta. The patient recovered with- 
out an untoward symptom. 

The next operation upon this vessel was per- 
formed by Sir Philip Crampton, of Dublin, in 
1828, with an unfavorable result. The statistics 
of twenty-seven cases, tabulated by Dr. Stephen 
Smith, of New York, in i860, exhibit eleven in 
which the artery was tied for the arrest of hemor- 
rhage with only one recovery, and fifteen in which 
it was secured for aneurism, with five cures and 
ten deaths. 

Dr. Mott possessed peculiar skill in the treat- 
ment of hare-lip. Many of the worst cases of 
this malformation that fell into his hands were so 
effectually cured as to render it difficult, a few 
years after the operation, to detect any traces of 
the original defect. 

I am unable to say what his success was in rhi- 
noplasty, or in the formation of new noses ; a 
branch of surgery so ably practised by Taliacotius 
in the sixteenth century, and so greatly perfected 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 51 

by Graefe, Dieffenbach, Serre, Zeis, Pancoast, Fer- 
gusson, and others in our own day. It is well 
known that he took a deep interest in the recon- 
structive surgery of the lips and cheeks, formerly 
so often mutilated by the injudicious use of mer- 
cury, and he has published the particulars of a 
number of successful cures. One of these cases 
occurred as early as 1825, and deserves allusion on 
account of the immense size of the gap, for filling 
which he was compelled to borrow a large flap of 
integument from the neighboring surface. 

One of the most distressing accidents that can 
possibly befall a human being is immobility of the 
lower jaw, dependent upon anchylosis of the tem- 
poro-maxillary articulation. This affection, usu- 
ally caused by salivation, was formerly exceedingly 
common in all sections of this country, but more 
especially in the Southwestern States, owing to 
the inordinate use of mercury in almost every 
form of disease, however trivial. As a natural 
consequence of this wretched practice, fortunately 
now obsolete, numerous cases of mortification 
both of the jaw-bones, and of the gums, lips, and 
cheeks occurred, leading to the most distressing 
deformity, and the necessity almost of a new 
branch of surgery. Dr. Mott had a full share of 
such cases. In 18 12, soon after his settlement in 
New York, a most distressing one fell under his 
notice, and elicited his most lively sympathy. 



52 



THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 



The success which attended his efforts at restitu- 
tion excited much interest in the profession, and 
induced him to bestow special attention upon the 
subject. After much reflection he finally con- 
structed an instrument upon the screw and lever 
principle, for prying open the jaw after the exci- 
sion, as a preliminary step, of the inodular tissues. 
In referring afterwards to the work of Scultetus, 
the "Armamentarium Chirurgicum," published in 
the seventeenth century, he found, much to his 
surprise, almost a fac-simile of his own instrument, 
just as Robert Liston, in the same work, found a 
figure and description of what modern surgeons 
have generally been pleased to call Liston's bone- 
forceps; so true is it that there is nothing new 
under the sun. 

An operation which added greatly to his fame, 
as an expert and daring surgeon, was performed 
by him, in 1841, for the removal of an immense 
fibroid tumor, filling up the entire nostril, and 
dipping far down into the pharynx. The suffer- 
ing was so excessive as seriously to impair the 
man's general health. After many fruitless efforts 
to effect riddance by different surgeons, Dr. Mott 
finally accomplished the object by the division of 
the nasal and maxillary bones in front of the face, 
rendered necessary to afford free access to the 
morbid growth. The operation, though not the 
first of the kind, was the most extensive and diffi- 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 53 

cult that had ever been performed for such a pur- 
pose, and was followed by complete recovery. 

As a lithotomist he stood in the very foremost 
rank. He was a strong advocate of the lateral 
method, which he always, like Cheselden, by 
whom the operation was so greatly perfected, per- 
formed with the bistoury. He considered the 
gorget as a clumsy, unwieldy, unscientific instru- 
ment, unfit for such a purpose. He fully indorsed 
the views of Mr. Liston, who declared that the 
gorget looked more like a "flauchter-spade," an 
implement for cutting turf, than an instrument 
for performing a delicate surgical operation. In 
1855, ^ e wrote t0 me tnat he had operated 162 
times, with a loss only of seven patients, or in the 
ratio of one in twenty-seven ; a success of which 
few surgeons, ancient or modern, can boast. He 
afterwards had three other cases, making in all 
165. He extracted the largest stone that was ever 
removed from the living body, its weight being 
seventeen ounces and two drachms. The patient, 
an aged man, lived several days after the operation. 

Other operations, many of them of great mag- 
nitude and delicacy, might be mentioned, but this 
is unnecessary, the more especially as I have already 
considerably exceeded the limits I had intended 
to assign to this branch of the subject. His great 
and crowning exploits were, the ligation of the 
innominate artery, the excision of the collar bone, 



54 



THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 



and the ligation of the common iliac artery, the 
first successful example of the kind upon record. 
All these were really wonderful performances, at 
the time of their occurrence without a parallel in 
the history of surgery. 

Dr. Mott possessed, in an extraordinary degree, 
all the qualities of a great operator — an eye that 
never quailed, a hand that never trembled, and a 
mind so well disciplined as to be capable of meet- 
ing every emergency. His dexterity in the use 
of the knife and the more delicate manipulations 
has rarely been equalled, certainly never excelled. 
He cut almost as easily with one hand as with the 
other. His natural gifts, his intimate knowledge 
of surgical anatomy, for a long time his daily 
study, and his vast opportunities, placed him at an 
early period of his life in the foremost rank of 
great operators. 

It must not, however, be supposed that he was 
a mere operator, or that he had an inordinate 
fondness for the use of the knife. Nothing could 
be more untrue. He possessed attributes of a 
much higher and nobler quality. He was, as 
every surgeon, with the slightest pretension to the 
name must be, an accomplished physician, a close 
observer of disease, acute in diagnosis, and per- 
fectly familiar with the nature and uses of reme- 
dies, in the efficacy of which he was a firm believer. 
It is deeply to be regretted that mankind so sel- 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 55 

dom know the real differences between the mere 
operator and the educated, skilful, and enlightened 
surgeon. The one delights in the use of the knife 
and the display of instruments; he cuts without 
discrimination or judgment, and often selects the 
very worst cases, on account of the eclat they may 
elicit. He knows little of therapeutics, and con- 
ducts his after-treatment without regard to conse- 
quences. The surgeon, on the contrary, is a man 
of science ; he is essentially conservative, and, 
hence, employs the knife only as a dernier resort; 
he has great confidence in the resources of Nature, 
carefully watches his patient, and uses a thousand 
stratagems to waylay and combat disease. The 
one is a curse; the other a blessing. The knife's- 
man is a disgrace to the profession; the conserva- 
tive surgeon an ornament and an honor. I know 
of no being more contemptible than one who 
cuts merely for the sake of a fee, or the pitiful 
notoriety it may secure him. 

To be a great surgeon, a great operator, a great 
teacher, was the measure of Dr. Mott's ambition, 
the dream of his youth, the glory of his riper 
years. He cultivated surgery with a rare single- 
ness of aim; it was with him "totus in illis ;" 
everything was subordinated to the accomplish- 
ment of that particular end. Much of his success 
was due to his accurate knowledge of surgical 
anatomy; he knew the relative position of every 



56 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

artery, and vein, and nerve, and muscle, as tho- 
roughly as a child knows its alphabet. He could 
shut his eyes, and see everything as clearly as if it 
had been reflected from a mirror. He tells us, in 
one of his introductory discourses, that he never 
performed a great or difficult operation upon the 
living subject without having first performed it 
upon the dead. The fact is, he had a passion for 
dissecting; and, although he was not, like Vesa- 
lius, obliged to rob the gibbet for subjects, he had 
often not a little trouble in obtaining them. The 
younger physicians of New York, who pursue 
their studies under the peaceful operation of the 
Anatomy Bill, enacted less than twenty years ago, 
know nothing of the perils and hardships which 
attended dissections in the early days of Mott. 

Another great element of power was his know- 
ledge of morbid anatomy. It may safely be 
affirmed that no man can be a surgeon, in the 
true and more exalted sense of that term, unless 
he is well informed upon this subject. Dr. Mott 
fully appreciated the importance of this study at 
the very outset of his professional life, and he 
therefore lost no opportunity of enlarging his 
knowledge of it by dissections and post-mortem 
examinations. His museum was a noble collec- 
tion of morbid specimens, from which he must 
have derived lessons of the greatest value as a 
diagnostician and therapeutist. 



\ 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. $j 



CHAPTER V. 

LITERARY, EDUCATIONAL, AND OTHER LABORS. 

Writes little — New York Medical and Surgical Register — Book of Tra- 
vels — Velpeau's Surgery — Introductory and other discourses — College 
teaching — Private pupils — Prize medals — Connection with hospitals. 

As a literary man Dr. Mott has left behind him 
no monument to perpetuate his name. His writ- 
ings, unfortunately, are very limited. It is deeply 
to be lamented that a practitioner of such vast 
experience should have failed to record his obser- 
vations for the benefit of his profession and of 
mankind. Considering his immense opportuni- 
ties, public and private, for studying diseases and 
accidents, and the astonishing number of opera- 
tions which he performed, from the most insig- 
nificant, as the excision of a little tumor, to the 
amputation at the hip-joint, the ligation of many 
of the principal arteries, and the removal of gigan- 
tic morbid growths, the loss thus sustained cannot 
be too much deplored. He might have published 
a vast treatise on clinical surgery, drawn entirely 
from the field of his own observations, and thereby 
enriched, if not enlarged, the domain of his pro- 
fession. Writing, however, was evidently distaste- 
ful to him ; and, perhaps, distrustful of his powers, 



58 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

he might have recalled to mind the fact that few 
works, especially if composed early in life, long 
survive their authors. Lacordaire has not exag- 
gerated the truth when he said : "After a century 
or two from their appearance, only a very few of 
the books even of the great writers are read." 
The sarcastic remark of Voltaire concerning Rous- 
seau's "Ode to Posterity" is eminently true of 
professional works — few reach their address. 
Mott's life was too incessantly engrossed by the 
cares and toils of his profession to leave him any 
leisure for extended authorship. Nothing is so 
well calculated to destroy one's literary taste as 
constant fatigue and worriment of mind, the com- 
mon lot of those engaged in large practice, espe- 
cially surgical, of the responsibility of which few 
persons can form any just estimate. The great 
bulk of Dr. Mott's strictly medical and surgical 
writings consists of reports of cases and operations 
scattered through the periodical press. They de- 
serve to be collected in book form. Of his later 
clinical lectures, delivered in the University of the 
City of New York, an abstract was published 
some years ago by one of his pupils, Dr. Samuel 
W. Francis. He had himself long contemplated 
the composition of a work on the capital opera- 
tions and new processes in surgery, of which he 
considered himself as the legitimate originator ; 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. $g 

but, from some cause or other, he died without 
accomplishing his purpose. 

In 1818, he founded, along with Dr. John Watts 
and Dr. Alexander H. Stevens, the "New York 
Medical and Surgical Register," designed mainly 
as a repository of the more important cases and 
operations occurring in the New York Hospital, 
of which they were the professional attendants. 
The work was modelled after the "Dublin Hos- 
pital Reports/' a celebrated periodical, replete with 
instructive matter, often referred to, even at the 
present day, on account of the valuable informa- 
tion it affords. The Register was, unfortunately, 
short-lived; for it ceased after the publication of 
the first volume. It will, however, always be an 
object of interest and attraction; first, because it 
was the first work of the kind ever issued on this 
side of the Atlantic, and, secondly, because it com- 
prises the earlier publications of three physicians, 
who, all in turn, occupied, though in different 
degrees, a high position in public and professional 
esteem. 

In 1842, soon after his return to the United 
States, he published an account of his foreign 
tour, under the title of "Travels in Europe and 
the East," in an octavo volume of upwards of 
four hundred pages. It attracted much attention 
at the time, and encountered a great deal of severe 
and ungenerous criticism from the medical press 



60 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

of this country. Many of its chapters are of ab- 
sorbing interest, but by far the most entertaining 
and instructive portion of the work is that which 
relates to his journey through Greece. 

In 1842, '43, and '44, he superintended the trans- 
lation, by Dr. P. S. Townsend, of Professor Vel- 
peau's treatise on Operative Surgery; a vast store- 
house, as is well known, of learning and research, 
precious alike to science and humanity; a legacy 
which the most gifted in the long and glorious 
line of French surgeons, from Ambrose Pare 
down, might have been proud to bequeath. Dr. 
Mott's principal part of the labor consisted of an 
elaborate preface and the addition of several hun- 
dred pages of new matter, made up, in great 
measure, of his previously published cases and 
reports. It need hardly be said that the contri- 
butions thus made materially enhanced the value 
of the original work. A new edition of the 
translation was issued, in 1856, with important 
notes and annotations, by Professor George C. 
Blackman, of Cincinnati. 

In the preface to this work, Dr. Mott adverts 
to the fact that he had long been in the habit of 
employing the curvilinear incision, to which Mons. 
Velpeau justly attaches so much importance in 
operations upon the jaws and in resections of the 
bones generally. The Coryphasus of French sur- 
gery, who has described the advantages and supe- 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 6 1 

riority of the proceeding with his accustomed clear- 
ness and ability, had evidently forgotten that the 
improvement was due mainly to the genius of his 
transatlantic confrere. Other operators have since 
claimed the paternity of this important practice. 

The other published writings of Dr. Mott are 
limited to introductory and valedictory lectures, 
delivered to his classes at the opening and close of 
the sessions of the medical colleges; an inaugural 
discourse on the occasion of his assuming the du- 
ties of President of the New York Academy of 
Medicine; an address before the Trustees of the 
New York Inebriate Asylum at Binghampton ; a 
sketch of the life of Dr. Wright Post; and a eu- 
logy on Dr. John W. Francis. In 1862, he pre- 
pared, at the request of the United States Sanitary 
Commission, a paper on the use of anaesthetics, 
for the benefit of our army surgeons; and after- 
wards, for the same body, a valuable article on the 
means of suppressing hemorrhage in gunshot and 
other injuries, intended mainly as a guide for 
wounded soldiers on the field of battle. He also 
contributed several interesting and instructive 
communications to the Transactions of the New 
York Academy of Medicine ; and one to the 
Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of Lon- 
don on a peculiar form of congenital tumor of 
the skin, to which he applied the term " Pachy- 
dermatocele. " The affection, which was not well 



62 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

understood until it was described by Dr. Mott, is 
of rare occurrence, and consists essentially in a 
hypertrophied condition of the cutaneous and cel- 
lular tissues, forming masses, of various shapes and 
sizes, hanging as it were from the body. He met 
only with five cases of it. With the exception of 
notes to his lectures, he has left no MSS. 

His style as a writer does not require criticism. 
It is plain, simple, intelligible, unambitious. His 
clinical reports are models of brevity and clearness. 

As a public teacher, Dr. Mott occupied a pro- 
minent position. His name is affixed to the diplo- 
mas of thousands of pupils, who were wont to sit 
at his feet, as if he had been another Gamaliel, 
imbibing knowledge from the rich fountains of 
his mind, to qualify themselves for the successful 
practice of their profession. Commencing his 
career as a lecturer with a private course on ana- 
tomy the winter after his return from Europe, he 
taught surgery in the schools and hospitals of his 
adopted city for nearly half a century. Without 
any attempt at oratory or meretricious display, 
which no man ever more despised, he was tho- 
roughly master of his subject, and had the rare 
faculty of making himself understood by the dull- 
est intellect. He never committed to memory or 
wrote out his lectures; a few notes carefully di- 
gested and the dissection always before him fur- 
nished sufficient topics to carry him rapidly and 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 63 

pleasantly through the hour. His manner in the 
amphitheatre was quiet and dignified ; his voice 
clear and distinct. His discourse was often en- 
livened by a piquant anecdote, illustrative of some 
point of practice, or of some great operation, of 
which, perhaps, he himself was the principal part. 
He always drew largely from the stores of his 
own experience. With theory he had little to 
do. Emphatically a teacher of facts, he never 
failed to be interesting and instructive. His great 
forte was clinical teaching, which no one ever 
knew how to set off to better advantage. On such 
occasions he was generally very animated, fre- 
quently facetious, always edifying. The student 
felt how much he had learned, and he often lin- 
gered behind after the exercises had closed, to 
obtain a nearer look at the object of his adoration. 
This feeling, so natural in youths, not unfrequently 
leads to the warmest attachments between the 
pupil and the preceptor, and is one of the most 
gratifying circumstances in the life of a public 
teacher. 

As a lecturer, he is said to have occasionally 
been too egotistical. Vanity is a trivial fault, 
which, in one who had so much to be vain of, 
might well have been overlooked. A celebrated 
American phrenologist was in the habit of saying, 
in speaking of the size of the brain: "Ladies and 
gentlemen, modern times have produced only three 



64 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

really great heads : one is that of Daniel Webster, 
the second that of Edmund Burke, and the third," 
gracefully carrying his hand to his own, "modesty 
forbids me to mention." The vanity of the great 
surgeon never offended against good taste. 

Mott never felt more at home than in the am- 
phitheatre, surrounded by his pupils. He delight- 
ed to instruct them, to watch the development of 
their knowledge, and to infuse into them some of 
his own enthusiasm. Lord Eldon, it is said, never 
was so happy as when he was in Westminster 
Hall, in the midst of the members of the bar, 
explaining some great and knotty point of law ; 
and the great surgeon experienced similar gratifi- 
cation in expounding to his youthful and inge- 
nuous auditors the principles and practice of his 
favorite branch of science. 

His private pupils were numerous, especially in 
the earlier part of his career, and are scattered, far 
and wide, over this vast continent, disseminating 
his doctrines, and illustrating his practice. Not a 
few of them have shone with the reflected light 
of their illustrious master, while others, more for- 
tunate, have risen by the force of their intellectual 
powers to great and deserved eminence as teachers 
and practitioners. Who can estimate the vast 
amount of good which a great surgeon, occupying 
a high social and professional position, may confer 
upon mankind through his pupils ? The seed 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 65 

thus sown may be transmitted to the most remote 
ages, increasing in vigor and freshness as it de- 
scends along the stream of time. 

His regard for medical students induced him in 
1856, as a means of encouragement, to institute 
three prize medals for the best dissections and clin- 
ical reports in the University of the City of New 
York. The awards were made annually, on com- 
mencement day, to the three most distinguished 
pupils up to the time of his death, and the exam- 
ple thus set has had the effect of inciting similar 
enterprises on the part of other eminent teachers. 
In his Will he ordered a fund to be set apart for 
the perpetuation of these prize medals, the great 
object of which is the promotion of the pupil's 
welfare, not the gratification of any selfish vanity. 
"I shall be cheered/' he remarks, "both now and 
hereafter, by the thought that I have thus been 
enabled to show my regard for him. I shall be 
cheered by the thought that any little distinction, 
which the possession of this medal shall obtain for 
him, may enable him more manfully and success- 
fully to contend with the vicissitudes of life. I 
shall be still more cheered by the thought that, 
perhaps, the last words I shall ever utter, in rela- 
tion to the recollections and associations which 
this emblem recalls and inspires, shall enable him 
to meet his fate with serenity, when, like me, he 
is preparing for the messenger of death." 

5 



66 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

The preparations accruing from the award of 
these prizes were always added to his museum, 
comprising nearly iooo specimens in healthy and 
morbid anatomy, besides a considerable number 
of casts, wax models, and paintings. The patho- 
logical specimens were the product principally of 
his own surgical operations, many of which were 
of a very formidable character. It was by far the 
largest collection of the kind in the country, and 
upwards of half a century had been spent in its 
accumulation. The great majority of the prepa- 
rations, properly so called, were made with his 
own hands. The museum was particularly rich 
in tumors, aneurisms, and diseased bones, joints, 
arteries, and bladders. The specimens were all 
arranged according to their respective affinities, 
and were illustrated by a comprehensive catalogue, 
published in 1858. It is with sorrow that I add 
that nearly the whole of this valuable and magni- 
ficent collection was lost in the burning of the 
edifice of the University Medical College in 1866, 
shortly after the death of its distinguished owner. 

Dr. Mott's career, as a public lecturer, was a 
remarkably checkered one. He was connected 
with quite a number of medical schools, and had, 
consequently, had many colleagues. With all of 
them he lived on the very best terms — with some 
of them, indeed, on terms of intimacy — and there 
was not an individual with whom he ever had any 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 67 

serious misunderstanding ; indeed, hardly a word 
of difference. He had, of course, his views and 
opinions, but he never attempted to enforce them 
against the wishes, feelings, or prejudices of others. 
He was too amiable and courteous a man to quar- 
rel; a mode of settling questions at one time, un- 
fortunately, too common in American medical 
schools. 

Dr. Mott's official connection with charitable 
institutions was long and extensive. Soon after 
his return from Europe, in 1809, he was appointed 
Surgeon to the New York Hospital, one of the 
oldest and most celebrated eleemosynary establish- 
ments in America, affording vast opportunities for 
the study and treatment of diseases and accidents. 
He retained his connection with the Hospital 
until 1835, when failing health compelled him to 
retire. Many of his most brilliant and daring 
exploits were performed within its walls, and it 
was there, in the presence of admiring pupils, that 
he delivered many of his most able and valuable 
courses of clinical instruction; a branch of educa- 
tion which he afterwards more fullv elaborated as 
Professor of Surgery in the University of the City 
of New York. 

On his return from his foreign travels, he re- 
entered the Hospital, but finally severed his con- 
nection with it, in 1850, on the occasion of his 
third visit to Europe. He was afterwards, for 



68 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

fifteen years, associated as Senior Consulting Sur- 
geon with Bellevue Hospital ; and he also served, 
for some time, in a similar capacity, St. Luke's 
Hospital, the Jews', St. Vincent's, and the Wo- 
men's Hospital, in the latter of which he always 
felt the deepest interest. On the 8th of Decem- 
ber, 1866, a tablet, erected to his memory at Belle- 
vue Hospital, was unveiled. It is situated in the 
main hall opposite to the stone upon which Wash- 
ington stood when the oath of office as President 
of the United States was administered to him by 
Chancellor Livingston. It bears the following 
inscription : — 

In Memoriam. Valentine Mott, M. D.; born, 
August 20th, 1785; died, April 26th, 1865: — a 
pioneer in Surgery of world-wide fame, his name 
is embalmed in the operations which he devised, 
in the far-reaching influence of his instructions, 
and in the kindly recollections of his life. In 
grateful remembrance of his valuable and volun- 
tary services during a period of fifteen years as 
Consulting Surgeon of Bellevue Hospital, this 
tablet has been erected by the Commissioners of 
Public Charities and Corrections of the City of 
New York, A. D. 1866. 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 69 



CHAPTER VI. 

LAST ILLNESS. 

Last illness — Funeral — Personal appearance — Marriage — Memorial 
Library — Family. 

With the exception of an occasional brief in- 
disposition, Dr. Mott, after his return from Europe 
in 1 841, enjoyed excellent health to within a few 
months of his last illness, when his family and 
friends began to notice a manifest decline in his 
physical powers, attended with erratic pains, chiefly 
seated in the back and limbs, and, now and then, 
exceedingly severe. Time, in its onward course, 
had made little outward impression upon him. 
At my last interview with him in the autumn of 
1863, he was as erect, and, apparently, as active, 
as when I first met with him upwards of a third 
of a century before. The frosts of eighty winters 
had hardly touched his hair. His mind, always 
clear and well poised, had undergone no change. 
His equanimity, his temperance, and his regular 
habits had maintained the machinery of his body 
in the best possible condition for the attainment 
of longevity and the enjoyment of physical and 
mental comfort. Without care, in the undisputed 
possession of every earthly source of happiness — 



JO THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

wealth, fame, friends, and a family that literally 
worshipped him — his life was one of uninterrupted 
serenity. So well, indeed, were all the faculties 
of his mind and body preserved that he continued 
to operate up to the close of his life. It was only 
occasionally, as when the case was one of uncom- 
mon delicacy, and when, from some cause or 
other, his hand was not as steady as usual, that he 
would resign the knife to his son, Dr. Alexander 
B. Mott, who for the last sixteen years of his life 
had been his constant assistant. 

His last illness was brief. On Saturday, April 
the 22d, he left his house, as had been his wont, 
at i o'clock, apparently in excellent health and 
spirits, to make his morning rounds. He had, 
however, hardly been gone an hour, when he 
came back in a violent rigor, his teeth chattering, 
and his whole frame shivering with cold. He 
complained of severe pain in his right leg and of 
a sense of extreme exhaustion. The limb gradu- 
ally assumed a purplish and cedematous aspect, but 
the pain soon entirely ceased, and long before 
death came to his relief all physical suffering had 
vanished. Everything was done, but in vain, 
by his physicians, aided by the wise counsel of his 
able, learned, and distinguished friend, Professor 
Austin Flint, to avert the fatal shafts of death. 
He expired at his residence, Gramercy Park, at a 
quarter past n o'clock, April the 26th, 1865. 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 71 

He retained his consciousness to the last, and sunk 
into his long rest without a struggle, softly and 
gently as a child falls asleep upon its mother's 
breast. The last words he uttered were, "Order, 
Truth, Punctuality ;" fitting expressions for one 
whose whole life had been an exemplification of 
the force of their import. 

Although he had reached the age of fourscore 
years — a period when life is usually held by a fee- 
ble tenure — yet the news of his death created 
universal grief. The medical profession, whose 
honored head he had so long been, felt that it 
had suddenly been deprived of one of its greatest 
ornaments, and the city of New York, for so 
many years the scene of his labor and renown, 
mourned as a city only can mourn when it loses 
one of its conscript fathers. 

The funeral took place on Sunday, April the 
31st, in the presence of an immense concourse of 
citizens, all anxious to testify their respect and es- 
teem. The medical profession attended in a body. 
Many of the most prominent divines, lawyers, 
literary men, artists, and merchants were present. 
The coffin, placed in the Church of the Trans- 
figuration, was decorated with the choicest flow- 
ers, emblems of purity and affection, reflecting 
the fragrance of a well-spent life. The body was 
deposited in Greenwood Cemetery, in the family 
vault, built under his own instructions, ten years 



7 2 



THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 






previously, in the form of a chapel with fifteen 
marble catacombs, in the highest central one of 
which are his remains. A niche above is to be 
occupied by his bust, from the chisel of the dis- 
tinguished sculptor, Mr. Ward, of New York. 
On the marble slab which seals the chamber are 
inscribed these words: — 

"Valentine Mott, M.D., LL.D., born at Glen- 
coe, Long Island, August 20th, 1785 ; died in New 
York, April 26th, 1865. 

My implicit faith and hope are in a merciful Redeemer, 

Who is the Resurrection and the Life. Amen, Amen." — V. Mott. 

The personal appearance of Dr. Mott was emi- 
nently prepossessing. Tall and erect, with broad 
shoulders, and a fine muscular development, he 
had an open, handsome countenance, a frank, 
manly expression, and a dignified yet cordial man- 
ner. His stature was fully six feet, his forehead 
high and prominent, the mouth small, the nose 
aquiline, the chin round and dimpled, the eye 
large, of hazel hue, and shaded by a heavy brow, 
and the hair, in early life, nearly black with a 
slight inclination to brownish. His features were 
regular, and indicative of the benevolence which 
formed so remarkable a trait in his character. It 
has already been stated that he was for a long 
time known by the sobriquet of the handsome 
Quaker Doctor. He retained his good looks 
until his death. Even his sight was excellent to 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 73 

the last. He never wore glasses, except at night, 
or when he had a very delicate operation to per- 
form. In old age his hearing and his touch never 
lost their delicacy, and he was always proud of his 
light, elastic tread. In his dress and in his habits 
he was the very perfection of neatness. He did 
not lay aside entirely the external characteristics 
of the Quaker until his visit to Europe in 1835. 

In 1 8 19, Dr. Mott married Louisa Dunmore 
Mums, a lady of English descent, congenial tem- 
per, great personal attractions, elegant manners, 
and rare intellectual endowments. The possession 
of such a wife was the crowning happiness of his 
long and well-spent life. The union lasted nearly 
forty-six years. Since his death Mrs. Mott has 
publicly manifested her high appreciation of his 
character by the purchase, at a cost of upwards of 
$30,000, of a suitable edifice for the accommoda- 
tion of "The Mott Memorial Library," lately 
incorporated by an act of the Legislature of New 
York. It is a monument of affection and esteem, 
reared wholly at her own expense, and is a beau- 
tiful exhibition of devotion, of which history pre- 
sents few examples. Among the most remarkable 
instances in this country are those of Mrs. Mutter, 
who built St. Luke's Chapel at Middletown, Con- 
necticut, in commemoration of her husband, the 
late Dr. Thomas D. Mutter, formerly Professor of 
Surgery in the Jefferson Medical College of Phila- 



74 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

detphia ; and of Mrs. Dudley, who erected the 
Dudley Observatory at Albany, in honor of her 
husband. The story of Artemisia is familiar to 
every classical scholar. When she lost her hus- 
band, a monarch remarkable for his accomplish- 
ments and exalted character, she abandoned herself 
to the wildest grief; but, at length, rising superior 
to her sorrow, she reared that splendid monument 
which formed one of the seven wonders of the 
world, and which, after the lapse of thousands of 
years, still bears the name of Mausolus. 

The Memorial Library contains Dr. Mott's 
medical books, with a number of works contri- 
buted, since his death, by his former personal 
friends; is free to medical students and physicians 
generally; and was formally inaugurated on the 
nth of October, 1866. The collection, without 
being extensive, comprises a choice assortment of 
the best surgical treatises, ancient and modern, 
and also a large number of medical pamphlets, 
many of which date as far back as the commence- 
ment of the present century. In the principal 
room are his desk and library chairs, with a highly 
finished bust of himself. His Bible and Prayer 
Book, the constant companions of his long life, 
occupy their accustomed places, and are truthful 
witnesses of the piety and excellence of his cha- 
racter. The walls are hung with portraits of 
himself, Lettsom, John Hunter, Francis, McLean, 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 75 

and others, worthy inmates of an institution de- 
signed to perpetuate the usefulness of a great and 
good man. The old library clock, so often wound 
up with his own fingers, stands upon one of the 
mantels, with the minute hand pointing to a quar- 
ter past 1 1 o'clock, the period of his departure, a 
silent monitor of the uncertainty of life, and of 
the ravages of Time. A model of his right hand, 
the ready servant of his intellect in a thousand 
surgical exploits, taken in plaster-of-Paris after 
his death, is inclosed in a separate case. 

In addition to these objects the apartment con- 
tains the surgical instruments of Dr. Mott, a 
choice and valuable collection, now, as their for- 
mer owner, resting from their labor. His scalpels 
were mostly of English make, principally from 
the manufactory of Laundy. He was fond of his 
old instruments, the companions of his earlier ca- 
reer, and frequently employed them in preference 
to the more improved models of the day. In his 
last interview with Sir Astley Cooper, the evening 
before he left London, that great man presented 
him with a magnificent case of instruments, of 
his own invention, as a token of his friendship 
and regard; and a similar souvenir, consisting of 
a splendid set of amputating knives, made of the 
iron and wood of the Old London Bridge, was 
presented to him by Mr. Bransby B. Cooper, Sir 
Astley's nephew. 



j6 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

It is a quaint saying of Bacon that great men 
have no continuance, and the truth of the remark 
is confirmed by many striking examples in history. 
This was not, however, the case with Dr. Mott. 
His marriage was blessed with nine children, six 
sons and three daughters. One of the eldest sons, 
Valentine, served for some time as Surgeon-in- 
Chief of the Sicilian Army, and died at an early 
age of yellow fever at New Orleans in 1852. 
Dr. Alexander B. Mott, now the only member of 
the family in the profession, worthily represents 
his father's fame — often a most dangerous inherit- 
ance — and is rapidly rising into distinction as a 
successful operator and teacher. The number of 
his grandchildren, at the time of his death, was 
sixteen, of whom two bear his honored name. 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. jj 



CHAPTER VII. 

CHARACTER AND HABITS. 

Earnest professional devotion — Reputation as a great surgeon — Elected 
a Member of the Institute of France — Patriotism and politics — Pro- 
fessional fees — System and punctuality — Domestic habits — Religious 
views — Portraits and busts — Conclusion. 

Having thus traced the career of Dr. Mott 
from the cradle to the grave, it will not be diffi- 
cult to form a true estimate of his character as a 
member of a great and learned profession; a pro- 
fession which, whether we consider its high anti- 
quity, its sacred mission, or its genius and enter- 
prise, is inferior to none other, not even divinity 
itself. 

A close analysis will serve to show that his 
greatness does not consist in any one single act, 
operation, or achievement; not in any grand im- 
provement, invention, or discovery; but in the 
entirety of the man, the perfection of his whole 
character, the tout ensemble of his life. There 
have been many physicians and surgeons of as 
much talent; many who have lectured as well; 
many who have handled the scalpel with as much 
dexterity; many, in a word, who, perhaps, have 
done some of these things even better than he, 



yS THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

and yet very few, indeed, who have combined these 
and other important qualities in the same degree 
as Dr. Mott. 

Eminently fitted by nature and education for 
the medical profession, he devoted himself to its 
study and practice with all the energies of his 
soul. For a period of nearly two-thirds of a cen- 
tury he never for a moment swerved from his 
allegiance. He loved surgery as his mistress, and 
his constancy merited all the favors which she so 
lavishly showered upon him. He opened his 
account with posterity when he entered the pro- 
fession, and perfected it at the early age of thirty- 
three, when he placed a ligature upon the innom- 
inate artery, almost in contact with the arch of 
the aorta; and he performed, as already stated, a 
greater number of capital operations than any 
surgeon that has ever lived. Long before he had 
reached the meridian of his life, his name had 
become a tower of strength throughout the length 
and breadth of this continent. If success be a 
measure of talent and genius, Mott was eminently 
great. The generation in which he lived, so 
prolific in illustrious surgeons, acknowledged no 
superior. The New World is as justly proud of 
Mott, Physick, McClellan, and Warren, as the 
Old of Dupuytren, Cooper, Graefe, Bell, or Lis- 
ton; immortal names in surgery. If his genius 
was not dazzling, it burnt with a steady flame, 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 79 

which was extinguished only with his last breath. 
The numerous scientific and literary honors that 
were showered upon him, both at home and 
abroad, are a flattering evidence of the high esti- 
mation in which he was held by his contempora- 
ries in all parts of the civilized world. 

A great surgeon is a kind of Lord High Chan- 
cellor, a Keeper of the Great Seal of State, as it 
were, to whose judgment are referred all cases of 
a grave or uncommon nature, whether of disease 
or accident, occurring within his bailiwick. He 
is supposed, from his superior knowledge, to be 
especially qualified to detect and rectify morbid 
action, to penetrate the most hidden secrets of the 
human frame, to perform the most delicate ope- 
rations, to possess peculiar skill in the adaptation 
of mechanical appliances, and, in short, to meet, 
promptly and effectually, every emergency, how- 
ever trying or unexpected. I unhesitatingly assert, 
without the fear of successful contradiction, that 
it requires as much intellect, talent, genius, and 
knowledge to form a great surgeon as it does to 
form a great lawyer, judge, divine, general, or 
statesman ; and I hold that when a man has 
reached the highest point of professional distinc- 
tion; when he stands upon a pinnacle where all 
men may see and study him, looming out in bold 
and prominent outline before the world, that it is 
an evidence, unmistakable and incontrovertible, of 



80 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

true greatness. Few men, in any walk of life, 
ever attain the topmost round of the ladder of 
fame. Industry, steady and persistent, may ac- 
complish much, but, unaided by genius, it is com- 
paratively ineffective, if not positively barren of 
useful results. The drop of water incessantly fall- 
ing may, in time, wear away the most solid rock; 
but it can never fashion the marble into the speak- 
ing statue of a Phidias or a Chantry. 

True character is often mirrored forth by the 
most trivial circumstance. The virtues and the 
vices of persons are not, as has been justly re- 
marked by Plutarch, in his account of Alexander, 
always seen to the best advantage in their most 
famous exploits. An insignificant act, a pithy 
saying, or a ready jest frequently affords a more 
correct insight into their character than a siege or 
a battle. Biography does not lift the veil of pri- 
vate life from^ idle curiosity; it respects the sanc- 
tity of the fireside; it pries into no family secrets. 
It merely portrays the aesthetic life — the soul 
which animates and beautifies the features of the 
picture on the wall. Dr. Mott was one of those 
pure and exalted beings who, worshipping God in 
Nature — 

"Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in everything." 

He was amiable and gentle almost to a fault. 
Harshness, jealousy, and bitterness never had a home 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 8 I 

in his breast. His countenance beamed habitually 
with benevolence. He had a way to every man's 
heart. In him sorrow and suffering ever found a 
ready sympathizer. Like Sir Thomas More, "he 
upbore the weary, and gave drink to the thirsty, 
and reflected heaven in his face." In all the en- 
dearing relations of life — as son, husband, father — 
as a citizen, a Christian, and a member of an ho- 
nored profession — his conduct was a model. 

Few surgeons, certainly none in this country, 
have ever received so many testimonials of respect 
and esteem from medical, scientific, and literary 
societies, domestic and foreign, as Dr. Mott. It 
would be tedious, as well as foreign to my pur- 
pose, to enumerate the various honors thus con- 
ferred. It will be sufficient to mention a few 
only, because of the great gratification which 
they afforded him. Foremost among these was 
his election as a Foreign Associate of the Institute 
of France, an institution which, occupying the 
highest rank in the French Empire, is composed 
only of the more illustrious savans, men who pos- 
sess some peculiar claim to consideration, either 
on account of their discoveries, their scientific 
attainments, extraordinary learning, or the great 
talent which they display in the exercise of their 
particular vocation. It holds in France the same 
position as the Royal Society of London in Great 
Britain, or the American Philosophical Society in 
6 



82 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

the United States, with this difference, that ad- 
mission to membership is much more difficult. 
To have one's name enrolled in the list of Foreign 
Associates is therefore a high honor, which, until 
recently, no other American ever enjoyed. The 
compliment, shared by Sir Humphry Davy, Lord 
Brougham, and Sir John Herschel of England, 
Sir David Brewster of Scotland, Berzelius of Swe- 
den, Humboldt and Ehrenberg of Germany, and 
Matteucci of Italy, was well merited. The Insti- 
tute of France was founded in 1793, upon the 
ruins of the Academies of Inscriptions and Belles- 
Lettres and of Sciences, which were combined in 
one body under this title. 

In 1852, he was made an Honorary Fellow of 
the King and Queen's College of Physicians of 
Ireland, an association founded soon after the 
middle of the seventeenth century. At the time 
of his election only twenty-six foreigners had 
received this compliment, he being the only Ame- 
rican. He was a Member of the Surgical Society 
of Paris, of the Medical Societies of Berlin, Brus- 
sels, and Athens, and of the Medical and Chirur- 
gical Society of London. 

He was for many years President of the Medi- 
cal Faculty of the University of the City of New 
York, and for some time President of the New 
York Academy of Medicine, in the establishment 
of which he took a very active part. He was a 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 83 

warm friend of the New York Inebriate Asylum 
at Binghampton, and at the time of his death was 
its President. The University of Edinburgh con- 
ferred upon him the honorary degree of M. D., 
and the University of the State of New York the 
degree of LL. D. 

Among his correspondents were many of the 
most distinguished surgeons and physicians of the 
United States and of Europe. Larrey, Roux, 
Civiale, Velpeau, Cloquet, Graefe, Cooper, Tra- 
vers, Liston, Lawrence, Fergusson, and Knox were 
the principal foreign ones. The letters of these 
men would, if properly arranged, form an inte- 
resting volume. 

The reminiscences of his foreign travels, em- 
bracing a period of seven years, were innumerable. 
He had always a ready fund of anecdote, and was, 
consequently, a most agreeable diner-out, although 
he rarely indulged in that pleasure. At his own 
table, where he lea 1 conversation, he seldom de- 
scended to the trifles of the day, was nervously 
impatient of interruption, or of an omission of 
etiquette, and always claimed and commanded a 
hearing. 

Although he had travelled extensively abroad, 
he had seen but little of his own country outside 
of New York. He had never beheld the mighty 
Mississippi, our vast and magnificent lakes, dot- 
ting the surface like so many inland seas, our wide- 



84 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

spread prairies, studded with myriads of gorgeous 
wild-flowers, or the majestic mountain scenery of 
Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Vermont. Many years 
ago I wrote to him, urging him to visit the South- 
western States, adding that no intelligent Ameri- 
can gentleman should permit himself to die before 
he had seen that glorious section of our great and 
growing country. His reply was, "I am afraid 
of steamboat explosions." The last journey he 
ever undertook was a visit to Annapolis, as a 
member of a committee appointed by Govern- 
ment to examine into the condition of the Fede- 
ral prisoners at the South. He rarely, even in his 
youth, went to any watering-places. For many 
years before his death the comforts of home were 
so essential to him that he could not dispense 
with them, and the crowd and confusion offered 
him no temptation. Lebanon and West Point 
were the only places of summer resort he could 
endure. The country, in fact, had no charm for 
him. He longed for his books and his patients, 
and he invariably came to town in the morning, 
returning in the evening. In 1846, he built, near 
the Bloomingdale road, an elegant and stately 
mansion, adorned with various kinds of trees and 
shrubbery, and surrounded with gardens, conserv- 
atories, and graperies, which he used as a summer 
retreat until the time of his decease. 

He was rarely seen at places of amusement. 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 85 

Whenever he visited the theatre, his interest in 
the play was almost childlike, a source of real 
pleasure and enjoyment. His mind, in a constant 
state of tension with grave thoughts, easily yielded 
to any outside gayety. 

During his residence abroad his taste for pic- 
tures and the fine arts greatly grew upon him — 
for in early life he had no time, and, indeed, but 
little opportunity for its indulgence — and after his 
return the walls of his house were covered with 
copies of the old masters and originals of the very 
best schools. At that time few persons in this 
country encouraged the fine arts or cared to accu- 
mulate objects of virtu; but he was always sur- 
rounded by every elegance and luxury, and the 
bent of his mind made an atmosphere and a cer- 
tain degree of display absolutely necessary to his 
comfort; a circumstance in strange contrast with 
the otherwise stern simplicity of his life, charac- 
ter, and occupation. 

Dr. Mott, I believe, never occupied any official 
position apart from his profession. His name is 
not associated with any great state movement for 
the benefit of the public, except the establishment 
of the New York Inebriate Asylum, or with any 
measure for the improvement of his adopted city, 
although he always felt the deepest interest in its 
scientific, literary, humanitarian, and commercial 
prosperity. His confidence in his fellow-citizens 



86 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

satisfied him that its welfare would not be per- 
mitted to suffer, and he deemed it more honorable 
to serve his profession than the public. 

A true patriot, he loved his country with equal 
purity and fervor. Born soon after the establish- 
ment of her independence, he had been through 
a long lifetime an active witness of her rising 
greatness, and in the hour of her danger he expe- 
rienced the same anxiety for her safety and ulti- 
mate restoration which a father feels for a loving 
daughter threatened with some malignant distem- 
per. No one deplored more deeply than he the 
frightful sacrifice of life and morals and treasure 
sustained in the bloody conflict. The assassina- 
tion of the chief magistrate of the nation greatly 
shocked and distressed him. He regarded it as 
an omen of ill import, as a stain, permanent and 
indelible, upon the country's escutcheon. His 
mind continually brooded over the sad event, and 
he never was himself again afterwards. From 
that moment death had marked him as his own. 
He was not seriously ill; but unhappy, despond- 
ent, melancholy, sick at heart, and frequently lost 
in reverie, as if his mind were absorbed in some 
deep, abstract study. Occasionally a gleam of 
sunshine stole upon him, only, it would seem, to 
render darkness the more visible. 

In politics he was strictly conservative ; he 
rarely went to the polls, and politicians he cor- 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 87 

dially despised. In all great national questions 
his views were calm and clear, and his interest 
intense. A great reader of newspapers, he was 
constantly on the alert for information, and spared 
no pains to post himself thoroughly in Congres- 
sional debates and foreign affairs. During the 
progress of the war, his quiet, deliberate manner 
and feeling changed, and he became anxious and 
restless respecting the latest intelligence. 

It is an interesting fact in the life of Dr. Mott 
that he inherited nothing from his father, save a 
good name and a respectable education. Such, 
however, was his success from the first hour of 
his professional career that he was always in easy 
circumstances, which increased so far that, before 
he was forty years of age, he had purchased a 
large double house in Park Place, then the fash- 
ionable part of the city, and set up what in those 
days was a very complete establishment, including 
a tutor for his children, men servants, carriages 
and horses. 

His professional fees were always large, espe- 
cially in the latter part of his life, when people 
readily paid any amount asked for his services. 
One thousand dollars was the largest sum he ever 
received for one individual operation, and this he 
obtained only twice. One of the patients was a 
lady from the Sandwich Islands. His estate at 
the time of his death was valued at nearly one 



88 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

million of dollars, an immense sum for a profes- 
sional man who was the architect of his own for- 
tune, although it is indisputable that great surgeons 
make more money by their practice than great 
physicians. Baron Dupuytren, Sir Astley Cooper, 
and Von Graefe were all millionaires. Poor Lis- 
ton, on the contrary, whose fame is still upon 
every one's lips, was hardly worth a few thousand 
pounds when he died. DierTenbach was always 
in debt and in fear of the bailiff! 

Dr. Mott was never idle. Reading, reflection, 
and observation were his daily occupation. He 
kept himself thoroughly posted in regard to the 
progress of his profession. The most minute de- 
tails were familiar to him ; and he always spoke 
with just pride of the rapid advances of the med- 
ical sciences. Everything that was novel, or cal- 
culated to throw light upon any obscure disease, 
or point of practice, at once elicited his closest 
attention. He hailed with enthusiasm the disco- 
very of anaesthetics, of tenotomy, and of the proper 
treatment of vesico-vaginal fistule by our country- 
man, Dr. Marion Sims. In a word, he took the 
same keen interest in everything that related to 
his beloved profession on the day of his death as in 
the dawn and meridian of his existence. "Live," 
said the dying Christian, in his last and most ear- 
nest counsel to his brethren, "live for the good of 
mankind, for the alleviation of sickness and suf- 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 89 

fering. Be ornaments to my beloved and honor- 
able profession ; fulfil your duties in every relation 
of life; but see that all else above yours be an 
interest in my Saviour and Redeemer, that you 
fail not to betake yourselves, as I did, to the Great 
Physician, and availing yourselves of all the means 
and remedies which He has provided, be healed 
forever of the manifold diseases of your souls. " 

These sentiments, breathed in the genuine spirit 
of Christianity, show the deep interest he felt in 
his profession, and the manner in which, in his 
opinion — an opinion shared by all good and ho- 
norable men — the physician should discharge his 
numerous duties and obligations. He looked 
upon medicine as a sacred pursuit, and upon its 
votaries as so many High Priests, anointed by 
God for their high and holy office. 

As an illustration of the interest which he took 
in everything relating to the profession, and to 
his own personal improvement, I may here men- 
tion that Dr. Mott, in the winter of 1850 and '51, 
was a member of a class which attended the lec- 
tures of Dr. Goadby on microscopical anatomy, a 
subject then attracting much attention among New 
York physicians. The meetings were held in the 
evenings at Dr. Sabine's office, and I do not re- 
member that he was ever absent from his post. 
And so it was with everything else; always busy, 
always in earnest, always keenly interested. His 



90 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

vigilance was unceasing. No rust ever blunted 
the edge of his intellect. " Intentum enim ani- 
mum quasi arcum habebat, nee lon'guescens suc- 
cumbebat senectuti." The rays of science freely 
entered the chambers of his mind in the very 
nightfall of his existence. He was old only in 
years; fresh and vigorous in everything else. 

System and punctuality were cardinal elements 
in his character. Order and precision predomi- 
nated in all his habits, and were, along with steady, 
persistent industry, the means with which he per- 
formed his daily labor and achieved his vast repu- 
tation. His private office table on the morning 
he was seized with his last illness was piled a foot 
high with letters ; but there was no confusion. 
He knew where everything was, and was able in 
a moment to place his hand upon it. 

Possessed of an extraordinary memory, his mind 
retained every detail of any subject to which he 
directed his attention ; hence his wonderful exact- 
itude in all points of medical science and medical 
history. A professional friend, Professor Darling, 
of the University of the City of New York, who 
knew him intimately for many years, writing to 
me upon the subject, remarks that he had never 
met with any physician, either in this country or 
in Europe, who had the details of the history of 
surgery so thoroughly at his command. 

His mental culture was extensive, and he pos- 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 91 

sessed an amount of general information far be- 
yond what is common among professional men. 
Hard student as he was in medical literature, he 
reserved time enough for the perusal of all the 
more important scientific and religious works and 
reviews. To keep pace with the progress of the 
age was his constant endeavor. His familiarity 
with the classics was surprising, and he often, in 
everyday conversation, indulged in allusions and 
quotations. One of the principal amusements of 
his leisure hours was the study of Johnson's Dic- 
tionary, a copy of which was always on his library 
table. 

His domestic habits were characterized by great 
simplicity. When his health permitted they were 
uniformly the same. He daily rose at 7 o'clock, 
breakfasted at 8, and dined at 5, rarely taking 
anything in the interval, except, perhaps, a glass 
of water. The neatness and precision of his toilet 
were as remarkable in his advanced as in his 
younger years. At 9 o'clock he went into his 
office, and, except when interrupted by his college 
lectures or a call to attend to some urgent case, 
remained at home until 1 o'clock. He then rode 
out to see his patients, to attend to business, or to 
make social visits. His horses and carriage were 
always in perfect order; he was nervously fastidi- 
ous about their being properly cared for, and they 
were never driven beyond a slow, dignified pace. 



92 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

He never was in a hurry, and yet invariably in 
time. His evenings were always spent in his 
library, in reading, writing, or conversing with 
his friends. The advancement of science, the 
progress and improvement of the age, absorbed 
his mind and thoughts, and he enjoyed professional 
and literary reading with a keen relish. 

Socially he visited very little in his latter years. 
A neuralgic affection of his arm, and sudden at- 
tacks of irregular action of the heart, rendered it 
necessary that he should avoid all excitement, and, 
above all, crowded rooms. He welcomed his 
friends when they called with great kindness, and 
was always happy to extend to them the hospital- 
ities of his house. Leading a life of concentrated 
thought and action, he was chary of his time, and 
restive under idle intrusion. His most intimate 
friends were Thaddeus Phelps, an eminent mer- 
chant, at whose house he first made the acquaint- 
ance of Mrs. Mott, and Dr. John W. Francis, upon 
whom he pronounced the feeling eulogy alluded 
to in a previous page. He had many warm 
friends and admirers in the profession, and no 
physician or surgeon was ever more idolized by 
his patients, from whom he received numerous 
tokens of affection and esteem. In the family 
circle he was loving, gentle, genial, and full of 
tenderness. His intercourse with mankind was 
dignified and courteous. To his friends his man- 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 93 

ners were most endearing. A gentleman of the 
old school, he was destitute of every selfish feel- 
ing, and he was ever ready to make any sacrifice 
for the good of others. To his dependants he 
was considerate, just, and kind-hearted. His en- 
mities, like those of Cicero, were mortal ; his 
friendships eternal. A gentleman, whose relations 
with Dr. Mott were most intimate, and who for 
sixteen years assisted him in many of his great 
operations, informs me that he never saw him 
angry. 

Although originally a Friend, he ultimately 
gave his adhesion to the Episcopal Church, whose 
beautiful and sublime service had evidently made 
a deep impression upon his mind. A confession 
of his faith was found in a memorandum-book 
after his death. He had implicit confidence and 
hope in a merciful Redeemer, and in a future state 
of existence. He never delivered a discourse to 
his pupils, introductory or valedictory, or a public 
address of any kind, in which there was not a dis- 
tinct recognition of the Christian religion. His 
Bible was his constant companion ; and he was 
very fond of reading the Greek Testament, a small 
pocket edition of which always lay upon his office 
table. 

Two busts exist of Dr. Mott ; one taken by 
Brower at the age of forty ; the other after death, 
by Ward. A portrait of him was painted by 



94 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

Jarvis when he was thirty years old, and another, 
almost life-like, two years before he died, by 
Wenzler. He sat for his photograph, also an ad- 
mirable picture, only a fortnight before his death. 
The artist, Rodgers, made a study of his face and 
figure for the statuette called the "Charity Pa- 
tient." The face, which is too old, is painfully thin 
and common; but the figure, the compassionate 
gesture, is true to life. In 1835, previously to his 
departure for Europe, he sat, at the request of his 
private pupils, to Mr. Inman for a portrait which 
now hangs in the Governors' rooms at the New 
York Hospital, alongside of those of Bard, Post, 
Mitchill, and Hosack. 

Thus lived and died Valentine Mott, a man 
whose career cannot be contemplated without ad- 
miration and respect for the many virtues which 
adorned his character; a career which, for single- 
ness of purpose, ardent love for the profession to 
which he was so long devoted, and all the ameni- 
ties which distinguish the Christian gentleman, is 
as rare as it is beautiful. Posterity will recognize 
in him a representative man, patient in labor, 
steady in purpose, faithful in principle, true to his 
vocation, toiling to erect a great and permanent 
reputation, worthy of his age and country. Com- 
mencing his career during what may be called 
the formative stage of American surgery, he lived 



VALENTINE MOTT, M. D. 95 

to see this branch of the healing art established 
among us upon a broad and enduring basis, with 
thousands of followers, not a few of whom were 
his own pupils, actively engaged in unfolding its 
great principles, in upholding its dignity, and in 
advancing its interests. By the brilliancy of his 
surgical exploits he elevated the character of the 
American medical profession, and added lustre to 
the nation. His life affords a beautiful illustration 
of what a man, true to himself and his profession, 
may accomplish by the force of his intellect and 
the improvement of his time and opportunities. 
Surgery and he were indissolubly linked together. 
From the moment he entered upon its practice 
they became sworn friends, reciprocally giving, 
receiving, and honoring each other. Abandoning 
himself wholly to one particular object, to one 
distinct and definite aim, he nobly fulfilled his 
mission. This singleness of purpose was an ele- 
ment of power which few men have ever wielded 
with greater effect, and which the youths of our 
country, bent upon the acquisition of an honor- 
able fame, and the accomplishment of great good 
to the human race, would do well to imitate. 
They would learn, by his example, that the only 
road to distinction and fortune is by patient labor, 
steady devotion, self-reliance, and unswerving 
principle. 

It will not be inferred from what has here been 



96 LIFE OF VALENTINE MOTT, M.D. 

said of Dr. Mott that he was exempt from the 
infirmities of our common nature. To make such 
an assertion would be, to borrow the language of 
an elegant writer, a sacrifice of truth, and an 
empty compliment to the memory of a good man. 
He had his failings, but not one solitary vice. 
His life was one of unsullied purity. Whatever 
error he had was born with him; not the result 
of habit or education. He had a broad, expan- 
sive love for his race, a profound self-respect, and, 
to use an expression of Bishop Burnet, a soul as 
white as ever dwelled in a mortal body. 



